


Elsewhere

by remywrites (orphan_account)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Creepy stuff, be careful of that i guess?, i call this the motel au but its more of a creepy town au, later on there's descriptions of people getting mildly hurt and possessed, welcome to Elsewhere everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-26 18:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10792578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/remywrites
Summary: “Lady, is this really worth it?”She weaves between his legs like she likes to do, and it reminds Kuroo of all of the times he’d tripped over her in bleary mornings or stumbling home drunk, all the times he’d told her about his problems and the late nights studying she’d sat with him through, purring and warm pressed up against his knee. She’d been a gift from Bokuto when he’d moved in with Yaku after the dorms, but despite living with the both of them she’d always followed Kuroo around and snuggled with him when he studied or at night. She’d been his constant after graduation as he struggled to figure out what to do.He sighs and grabs his keys.orKuroo's post-breakup, post-graduation road trip across the United States is interrupted when he arrives at Elsewhere, Oregon, where nothing is as it seems and not everyone can be trusted.





	1. some like it hot (pockets)

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys don't like curses and some horror, you might want to turn around right about now.  
> This is going to (hopefully) be a pretty long fic, updating every week unless there's an emergency or it's finals week. I hope y'all enjoy!

Kuroo needs to get away. 

That’s why he’s here, on this winding little highway on the Oregon coast, with his car practically screaming at him to get gas. The sun is hanging low over the ocean waves, painting them gold and orange, and Kuroo desperately hopes he’s somewhere close to the town he’d hoped to get to that day. 

His cat meows at him from where she’s lounged across the backseat, reminding him that the last time they stopped was somewhere near the California border in some tiny little backwater for fish and chips. His stomach growls, as if to agree with his temperamental cat, and he sighs. He misses the bustle of the city, though it’s hard to argue with the stark beauty of the lonely highway, caught between the vast ocean and the looming pine forest. The radio comes in and out, playing some pop song he’s only a little embarrassed to know by heart. 

Salvation comes in a little brown sign, telling him that his final destination, Cannon Beach, is much too far to drive to before his car runs out of gas, he dies of hunger, his cat stages a mutiny, or he crashes his car on the winding, unfamiliar road in the darkness. He lets out a long, defeated sigh.

The sign, thankfully, also tells him there’s a town called Elsewhere he’s fairly sure he didn’t see on the map in a few miles, and he glances nervously at the gas meter which is slowly but surely dipping down towards zero. Elsewhere had better have a gas station, and preferably something to eat. 

Lady climbs from the backseat over the armrest to the front seat, settling down on the passenger seat and peering haughtily out the window. On her side it’s all forest, pine trees pressed close together and illuminated in orange and bronze by the sun setting over the ocean. If Kuroo weren’t panicking he would appreciate the view, but his eyes flicker between the road ahead and the gas meter with mounting anxiety. 

Finally, he spots a sign welcoming him to Elsewhere, Oregon, population 1032, and moments later a few houses come into view, as well as a small trailer park. There’s one other car on the road even as he approaches a small strip of shops, including a tourists shop, a convenience store, a saltwater taffy and ice cream shop, a liquor store, and not much else. A few people are walking down the street, but besides that it’s eerily quiet as Kuroo inches through town, mindful of the ridiculously low speed limit he’d spotted entering town. 

He’s about to turn around and go back to the shops to find someone who can give him directions when he spots a familiar glowing Shell sign, and throws his head back in relief. Lady meows at him and paws at the window as he slows to a stop in front of one of the pumps. 

He turns the car off and steps out to stretch, sucking cool air into his lungs. It’s cold out, enough to prickle through his t-shirt and light hoodie, but after the stuffiness of the crappy rental car he’d gotten back in San Francisco it’s a welcome feeling. The air is crisp and smells like pine trees and the ocean, curiously free of the smell of gasoline despite the location. 

“Hello, sir,” a pleasant voice says from the other side of his car, and he turns to face a young man, around Kuroo’s age, with silvery blond hair and a wide smile. “Need a fill up?” 

It takes a moment for Kuroo’s brain to catch up with the English, and he blinks at the stranger for a moment before nodding. “Ah, yes, please?” 

The man’s smile just seems to grow, and he nods. “Regular, right?” 

“Uh, yes.” He pauses, gathering his thoughts. English is much harder when he’s spent the last few hours inside his own head (and occasionally out loud to Lady) in Japanese and he’s dead tired. 

“Just passing through?” the man asks as he hooks the pump up to the car, leaning back against the gas machine. 

“I was hoping to stay the night here,” he answers carefully. “I want to go to Cannon Beach, but it’s far.”

The man hums, brow furrowed in thought. “There’s a motel just down the road, though…” he pauses, pinning Kuroo with an evaluating look. “Hm. It’s called the Cat’s Meow, just half a mile down the road,” he twists and points down the road out of town. “There’s a red electric sign with the name and a little cat, it’s hard to miss.”

“Thank you,” Kuroo tells him, relieved to be able to stop for the night instead of pressing on. 

“No problem, just tell whoever’s at the counter Suga sent you,” the guy says with a grin Kuroo can’t help returning. “So, what are you doing up here? We’re not exactly a tourist destination.” 

“I’m making a road trip,” Kuroo explains, the words coming more easily to him as the cold air wakes him up. “I’m from Tokyo, I wanted to see the U.S. I drove up here from San Francisco, just got to the U.S. two days ago.” 

“Tokyo, huh? That must be interesting,” the guy hums. “Oh, I’m Suga, by the way!” he sticks out a hand. 

“Kuroo,” he replies, finding Suga’s hand to be firm despite his delicate appearance. 

They chat until his tank is full and Kuroo follows him inside to pay. Another young man around the same age sits behind the counter reading some kind of magazine about space, legs propped up on the counter. He looks up when Kuroo enters and looks him up and down with a piercing gaze before returning his attention to his magazine. Suga strides over confidently and snatches the magazine up, giving the other man a glare. 

“Ring this guy up for me, won’t you, Tooru? I’m gonna call Keiji, Kuroo here’s spending the night in the Cat’s Meow.” 

Tooru whines a bit but does as he’s told, punching something into the register and reciting a number at Kuroo, which he scrambles to match up to the unfamiliar currency. He shoves what he hopes is a somewhat reasonable amount of cash at the guy which he sifts through, returning a couple of bills and a Japanese yen bill which Kuroo forgot to change back in San Francisco. 

Suga catches him as he’s about to leave, holding a phone away from his ear. “The owners of the motel know you’re coming, the office is out in front! Have a nice night, Kuroo.”

“Thank you, you too,” Kuroo smiles back, pushing through the door and out into the night.

Just as Suga said, after a short, kind of dark drive along the highway he sees the glowing red sign and turns into a small gravel parking lot in front of a small building. In the background he sees the familiar long, thin stretch of motel rooms, and further back a small two-story house where the owners must live. Despite the slightly dingy exterior it’s almost perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, facing what must be a gorgeous view with good light. 

He leaves his belongings inside the car and steps out, making his way into the front office. It’s much warmer than outside, which he’s grateful for, and the lighting is dim and cozy, illuminating a few chairs, a rack of postcards, and a wooden desk stretching across one wall with someone curled up in the chair behind it, head buried in some kind of handheld game. 

“Hello?” Kuroo asks, feeling a bit out of place. He hadn’t seen any other cars outside, and despite what Suga had said, the desk worker doesn’t seem to be expecting him. 

The desk guy’s eyes flick up to him, and for the third time that night Kuroo finds himself being examined, this time by slanted, golden eyes that Kuroo can’t tear his own gaze away from. Most of his face is hidden by badly dyed hair. The guy’s eyes stand out like lanterns on his face. 

“You’re Suga’s guy,” he says, more a statement than a question.

“Um.. yes?” Kuroo says, annoyed immediately at how unsure his voice sounds. The guy lifts his head, revealing sharp cheekbones and a thin, sloping nose. “I just need a room for the night, I’m heading out tomorrow.” 

The guy nods and turns to the computer on his desk, asking for his name and identification (Kuroo has to explain his Japanese driver’s license and how to spell his name, which he mostly just guesses at) and handing him the keys to room number four. 

“Can you find it?” the guy asks him, and something about the flatness of his gaze tells Kuroo that the answer had better be yes. 

“Sure,” he replies, remembering the sole strip of rooms he’d seen. “Um, where is good for food around here?” 

The guy frowns at him, and he brings up a hand to bite at the nails. Must be a nervous habit. “I think everything’s closed now,” he responds. 

“Are you sure? I just need-” 

“Kenma? Did that-oh, hello,” a new voice comes from a door behind the guy’s desk, and both look up at the guy. “You must be Kuroo. I’m Keiji, Kenma and I here run the motel,” he reaches over to shake Kuroo’s hand. 

“Nice to meet you,” Kuroo replies, forcing himself to remember the right formalities. 

“He wants food,” the desk guy, Kenma, tells Keiji blankly, and Keiji looks down at him with a light glare.

“Everything should be closed now, I’m afraid we’re a pretty boring town and everyone tends to eat early and get to bed as the sun’s getting down,” Keiji explains. “You might be able to get something from the gas station, but that’s not really food…” Keiji’s eyes flicker to where Kenma is blatantly glaring at him from behind a thin curtain of his blond hair. 

“I’ll just grab something quick from the gas station,” he assures Keiji, trying to decipher the reason behind Kenma’s urgent and pointed glaring at Keiji that the taller doesn’t seem to notice. 

“Eat with us,” Kenma blurts out, and Keiji gives him a quizzical look. 

“Kenma, all we have are hot pockets and instant ramen,” Keiji says, and then something seems to occur to him because his eyes fill with understanding before turning into a clear glare that Kenma returns in full force. Kuroo feels distinctly out of place, and wonders if he’s about to witness a murder.

“Really, it’s fine, I’ll just-” 

“No,” Kenma says, his voice strong and final in a way Kuroo doesn’t expect from the otherwise soft spoken guy. Keiji just sighs. 

“Kenma’s right, you won’t find anything better than hot pockets at this time of night anyway,” Keiji concedes. “Get settled into your room and come up to the house when you’re ready.” 

Kuroo nods and thanks the two before taking himself and the keys to the room out of the office and the oddly tense atmosphere there. He tries not to overthink the exchange, but he’s sure there was more going on between the two in that conversation than they wanted him to know. He’s never been known to turn down free food, however, and he’s still oddly fond of hot pockets and instant ramen. College probably ruined his taste buds permanently. 

He grabs his luggage from the trunk of his car and drags it to his room, unlocking it to find a small room with a large bed, a TV, and a room leading to a tiny bathroom. The walls are painted a muted red color that clashes awfully with the puke-green carpet and the window is way too small, but it’s somewhere to stay for the night and Kuroo’s exhausted. 

Belatedly, he realizes he left Lady in the car, and runs back to his car to get her. She’s taken to scratching at the back seat upholstery when he gets there, which he’s going to kill her for later, but for now he stuffs her wriggling, angry form into his jacket and, somewhat guiltily, sneaks her back to his room. 

He’d forgotten to ask if the motel allowed pets, which they probably don’t, but Lady doesn’t shed much and he can leave the window open so she can leave to do her business. 

He takes a shower before heading up to the house and changes into something that doesn’t smell like travel or have grease stains, too tired to care if it really matches or not. He reaches down to ruffle Lady’s fur and promises her some food if he can sneak it from the house before heading out into the night.

It’s even cooler than it was before and this time it bites through Kuroo’s light jacket and makes him shiver as he trudges up a small trail up a hill to the house. There’s a couple of small lanterns to light the way but not much else, and he keeps his eyes on the uneven trail as he walks, moving as quickly as he can to shake off the cold. On one side a grassy hill slopes down to a cliff overlooking the ocean, and on the other the forest rises up, dark and ominous. During the daytime the trees were beautiful and intriguing, but now they’re just creepy. Kuroo speeds up a little more. 

The house, as he nears, appears to be an old two-story building with a ratty couch on the front porch and an old-fashioned brass knocker on the door that Kuroo uses to rap on the dark wood. He can hear a voice through the nearest window talking quietly as footsteps near and Keiji opens the door.

“Hello, Kuroo,” he says with a small smile. “Come on in.” 

Kuroo almost takes off his shoes before remembering he’s not in Japan, though it still feels odd walking down the short hallway to the kitchen still in his shoes. The house is made of dark wood and the light above him casts a low, warm light on the hallway and some paintings lining the walls, mostly plants and landscapes with a photograph at the end of a younger looking Kenma and Keiji standing in front of the Cat’s Meow motel sign, grinning. 

The kitchen is small and the appliances look kind of old fashioned, but it’s cozy and there’s a large window overlooking the cliffs. Kenma is standing in front of the counter with two hot pockets on plates beside him, the other slowly rotating in the microwave. He seems to be absorbed in something on his phone but blinks when Kuroo and Keiji enter, muttering a greeting before returning his attention to the device in his hands. 

The microwave beeps and Keiji replaces the plate in it when Kenma doesn’t react, and Kuroo leans against the counter next to the smaller, glancing over his shoulder at the screen. It takes a moment for him to process what Kenma’s doing, and when he does he can’t help grinning.

“You play Neko Atsume?” he asks, and Kenma’s hands still on the screen for a moment before giving the cats more food, giving Kuroo a chance to appreciate the elaborate set-up Kenma has before he closes the app.

“Yeah,” he says. “I like cats.”

“But he can’t get an actual one because I’m horribly allergic, so he watches cat videos and adopts virtual cats and volunteers at the animal shelter,” Keiji adds, returning Kenma’s light glare with a small grin. 

“I have a cat,” Kuroo decides to mention before he can think better of it. 

“Back in Tokyo?” Kenma asks, interest obviously piqued, and Kuroo mentally curses. He’s a terrible liar and he knows it. 

“Uh, yes,” he says, trying to school his tone, but now Kenma is squinting at his face and Kuroo can’t help trying to avoid his gaze. Kenma raises his eyebrows. “Um.” 

 

“You brought your cat with you, didn’t you,” Keiji says more than asks, and Kuroo nods guiltily. Keiji sighs and pins Kuroo with an icy gaze. “Kenma, you’re cleaning that room.” Kuroo’s eyes dart from Keiji’s terrifying, deadpan expression to Kenma, surprised to find that the guy’s eyes are shining. 

“Can I meet your cat?” he asks quietly, and Kuroo nods. Kenma goes to put away his phone and stands from where he was slumped against the counter. 

“Now?” Kuroo asks, eyeing the last of the hot pockets, which Keiji had just taken out of the microwave. The smell is making his mouth water, and he’s reminded yet again of how ravenously hungry he is. 

“Oh,” Kenma blinks at him, then glances at the hot pockets. “Right,” he shrugs and grabs his plate, and Keiji takes one as well, following him through a doorway into the dining room, Kuroo scrambling to follow. 

They settle down at the table, Kuroo tearing into his hot pocket like a dying man and holding back a moan at how good it tastes. He’s never been good at going hungry, though he’s (arguably) more patient than Bokuto, and Keiji gives him a look as he politely cuts his own. Kuroo slows down a bit.

“So, what brings you here, Kuroo?” Keiji asks politely. 

“I’m doing a road trip,” Kuroo explains after swallowing. “I just finished college in Tokyo, and I’ve always wanted to see the United States.”

“Alone?” Kenma asks quietly.

“A friend from Tokyo was going to join me, but then he got recruited to play professional volleyball, and then a friend who lives in San Francisco was going to, but his grandmother got sick and he has to take care of her,” he explains, remembering that he should call Bokuto when he gets back to his room. He hadn’t been able to see his friend’s first game, but he’d seen that they’d won on his phone when he stopped for lunch earlier. 

“That’s a shame,” Keiji says lightly, and Kuroo nods.

“Yeah, but it’s simpler travelling alone,” he responds with a shrug. Keiji hums.

They make small talk for a bit as they finish their hot pockets, and Keiji brings out some wine which Kuroo accepts gratefully. He learns that both Kenma and Keiji grew up here as friends and decided to open up the motel after high school. In turn, he tells them about college and that he’s still deciding whether or not to go to graduate school to continue studying chemistry, and a little about his friends back in Tokyo. Kenma tells him that Tooru and Suga were horrible troublemakers as teenagers, and Keiji advises him to avoid the woods at night. 

After a while Kuroo can feel himself growing tired, and tells them he’d better get to bed if he’s going to get an early start. He’s grabbing the coat he left at the door when Kenma stops him, fingers twitching. “Can I still meet your cat?” he asks, sounding unsure of himself. Keiji snorts. 

“Oh,” Kuroo blinks at him, a little surprised he still remembers. “Sure, if you’d like.” 

Kenma nods vigorously and grabs a red coat by the door, waiting patiently for Kuroo to say his goodbyes to Keiji before leading them out the door and down the porch steps. 

They walk in silence for a while, breath fogging out in front of them as Kuroo shivers, glancing enviously at Kenma, who doesn’t seem affected. The clouds from earlier have blown away and the night is lighter than when Kuroo had walked up the path, little lights sparking on the tumultuous ocean that opens up on one side. It’s breathtakingly beautiful to Kuroo, who so rarely sees stars back home in Tokyo, but Kenma seems as unaffected as always. The only time his blank expression had lifted was when Kuroo had mentioned his cat. 

“What’s Tokyo like?” Kenma asks, almost too quiet for Kuroo to hear over the sound of the ocean crashing against the cliffs and his own thoughts. 

“Busy,” he replies after a moment. “Everyone’s always got somewhere to be. And it’s loud, and bright. No stars.” 

Kenma hums, looking out over the ocean. “I want to go there someday.” 

Kuroo laughs. “This town is pretty beautiful. This whole coast is beautiful, I guess. Tokyo’s beautiful too, but not in the same way.” 

Kenma lets out a little snort. “It’s beautiful, but it’s horribly boring,” he says, and Kuroo sees that he’s frowning. “It’s hard to escape, though.” 

Kuroo’s not sure how to respond to that, so he leaves it, and they walk in silence the rest of the way to the room. Kenma looks like he belongs to the scenery in a way Kuroo doesn’t completely understand, the way he holds himself and blends in with the environment, completely at ease. The place sets Kuroo a bit on edge, makes his skin crawl when he hears something rustling in the woods and his feet stumble on loose rocks in the trail. He’s not made for this place like Kenma so obviously is. It makes Kuroo wonder why Kenma would ever want to leave. 

He’s somewhat relieved when they get to the strip of hotel rooms and their lights, a bit tired of stumbling around in the dark despite the beautiful night. Kenma slows down a bit to led Kuroo lead as they reach the room, and Kuroo can feel the guy’s gaze on him as he fumbles to unlock the door. 

As soon as he opens the door Lady is weaving around his legs, meowing with annoyance at being left alone for so long. The month he’d spent mostly at home preparing for the trip after graduating had spoiled her, he suspects, as she’d spent most of the time cuddled up to him or demanding more food. 

When he looks over at Kenma his eyes are sparkling and he’s smiling softly, which takes him completely by surprise. His face transforms when he smiles, wide eyes crinkling a bit at the corners and the faintest hint of a dimple showing on one side. Kuroo finds himself staring and looks away, willing the blush that had crept up his neck without him realizing to disappear into the cool night air. 

Kenma, luckily, doesn’t notice, instead bending down and allowing Lady to sniff his hand before he gently pets her head, scratching a bit behind her ears. Kuroo’s cat is usually a bit standoffish with strangers but she leans into the touch, and Kuroo can’t take his eyes away from the scene as Kenma continues to stroke Lady, dye-blond hair bleached white by the pale moonlight. 

Kuroo steps inside the room as Kenma spoils his cat even more than he already does, bringing out a little meat wrapped in tin foil Kuroo hadn’t seen him take. He looks so happy as Lady rubs against his knee and purrs, the whole scene tugging at Kuroo’s heartstrings. He’s always had a soft spot for cute things. Bokuto had always endlessly teased him about his love for cats and stuffed animals and animated movies, but the guy had no less than seven owl posters, so Kuroo maintains that he had no right to speak. 

He changes into pajama pants in the bathroom and comes back out, sitting cross-legged across from Kenma as he feeds Lady little pieces of meat. She’s a really fat cat, mostly because Kuroo has a big problem saying no to her. Kenma’s eyes are fond as he strokes her gently, smiling as she climbs halfway into his lap to get at the meat better.

“Lady is really great,” he tells Kuroo absently, and Kuroo breaks out smiling. 

“I know,” he coos, reaching out to stroke her ear. Something pulls at the edge of Kuroo’s brain, and he tries to remember when he told Kenma Lady’s name. He shakes off the thought as soon as it pops into his brain. God, he really needs to get some sleep. He must be more exhausted than he realizes if he’s starting to forget things he said five minutes ago. 

“It’s getting pretty late,” he tells Kenma, who blinks up at him with eyes that make Kuroo want to let him stay for as long as he wants. He gives him an apologetic smile in return. “I should get to bed soon.”

“Ah, right,” Kenma says, giving Lady one last stroke before standing up, Kuroo following in suit. “Thanks for letting me pet her.”

“Thanks for the hot pocket,” Kuroo replies with a grin, which Kenma returns after a moment. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Probably,” Kenma agrees, and with that he turns and sets off down the trail, disappearing into the dark of the night.

The ocean breeze ruffles through Kuroo’s hair and is probably freezing his room, which is still open, but Kuroo can’t bring himself to mind the cold, not when it feels like his cheeks are on fire. Lady weaves between his legs and meows.

“I know, girl,” Kuroo sighs, reaching down to pick her up and cradling her in his arms, burying his face in her fur. “I really need to stop being a romantic loser.”


	2. the sirens call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Dude,” Bokuto says when he finishes. “That’s creepy as fuck.”
> 
> Kuroo frowns. “Huh?”
> 
> “You just went and ate dinner late at night, after dark, with two random guys who live in an old creepy house and own a practically abandoned motel?” Bokuto screeches. “Dude! You’re lucky to be alive! What if they were axe murderers and that gas station guy was their accomplice? I’d be so sad if you got murdered, dude!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title: Kuroo really, really loves his cat.  
> Chapter 2 is here, I hope you all enjoy!

The second Kuroo’s alarm goes off, he hates everything. His cat is lying half on his face and he’s probably been breathing cat hair for however long she’s been there, he’s not greeted with the smell of coffee like he was for the two weeks he spent in San Francisco with Daichi, and it’s 6:30 in the morning. 

He manages to get Lady off with only an indignant yowl and a light nip at his jaw, which serves to wake him up a bit more but not much else, and notes with blatant disgust that the sun hasn’t even risen yet. It’s nearly pitch dark inside the motel room. It’s also freezing cold when he sticks his arm out from under the covers, enough to make the hairs on his arm stand up and any motivation to get out of bed nearly vanish from Kuroo’s mind. He remembers leaving the window open so Lady could get out to go to the bathroom and not make the owner’s life a living hell, and now that decision seems like the worst thing he’s ever thought up in his entire life, including the time he took up Bokuto’s bet that he’s enough cat to always land on his feet and broke his collarbone. 

After around fifteen minutes of groaning and rolling around in bed Kuroo manages to get up, trudging to the bathroom and doing his best to make his hair look like less of a disaster before getting dressed and making sure he has all of his things. 

It’s only a little colder when Kuroo steps out of the room with his bag in one hand and cat in the other, and Kuroo’s already bundled up in a windbreaker over a thick sweater, enough so that the cold doesn’t creep in. The sun’s risen, illuminating the sparkling dew on the grass and the fog that drifts across the ground and nearly obscures the sea from view in the dim light, drenching everything in dull, muted colors. With a cup of coffee in his hand or maybe a fire Kuroo would stop to appreciate it, but as is he simply hurries to his car to drop off his things before making his way to the front office. 

It’s closed, and Kuroo notes with chagrin the hours, which state 8-9:30. It’s a bit after seven, and Kuroo bitterly regrets setting his alarm for so early and giving up an hour of sleep. He should’ve asked Kenma or Keiji the hours. 

He returns to the room, not awake enough to even think about getting something to eat, and scrolls through his contacts, pressing on Brokuto after remembering guiltily that he’d forgotten to call his friend the night before to congratulate him on winning and to update him on his whereabouts. 

“Kuroo!” Bokuto’s voice pierces through Kuroo’s phone after a few rings, and he holds it slightly away from his ear with a grin. “Dude I’ve been waiting for you to call, I was gonna but then I remembered that you’re in a totally different time-that’s still so trippy man, like what the fuck?-and I didn’t want to call because I might wake you up or make you crash your car or something, which would suck, but bro did you see the game? It was great, right?” 

Kuroo takes the opportunity to butt in when Bokuto pauses for air, knowing full well he’d just barrel on without waiting for a response if Kuroo didn’t. “I didn’t see it but I saw you guys won! I’ll watch the video when I have time, I got in so late last night.” 

Bokuto launches into a detailed retelling of the game, mentioning the opposing team’s ace more times than Kuroo can count with something between awe and a fierce sense of rivalry, and Kuroo relaxes onto the bed and listens to Bokuto’s voice and the familiarity of his over-embellished, colorful stories. It makes Kuroo ache for home and for volleyball. He’d gotten to play a bit with Daichi and a group of his friends in San Francisco, but playing with his University team and his friends back in Japan was like playing with family.

“-and then Asahi spiked the winning point! And I was like, damn, I didn’t get to, but also, it was super badass and the libero looked like he’d just gotten punched in the face, which was kinda satisfying, ‘cause he was good and kept receiving my badass spikes, but I think Asahi felt kinda bad ‘cause they were teammates in high school.” 

There’s a pause, which Kuroo takes to mean the story has finished. “Bro, that sounds awesome,” he says. “I wish I could’ve been there.” 

“I wish you were on my team! I mean, our blockers are great and stuff, but no one pisses off the opponents like you do!” Bokuto shouts into the phone, letting out a loud sigh. “Maaaan, you so could’ve tried to go pro. Fuck school.” 

Kuroo laughs, remembering back towards the end of senior year of college and Bokuto’s constant insistence that Kuroo should “fuck school” and try to go pro in volleyball like him. He’d thought long and hard about that, but in the end, he’d come to the realization that his volleyball abilities would only take him so far, and chemistry lit that same passion for him that volleyball did. At times it made him want to bang his head on his desk until his brain turned to mush and burn all of his textbooks, but he always came out of those periods loving it just the same. 

“I do miss volleyball,” he admits. “But don’t make me think about school, please, I’m supposed to be clearing my head of that junk.” 

“Right! Dude, how’s the trip going? Where are you? What’s it like?” 

Kuroo launches into his own story, starting off from the last time he’d called Bokuto two days before he’d left. Despite his loud nature Bokuto’s always been a great listener, laughing and gasping and commenting in all the right places as Kuroo recounts the trip up and his strange night in Elsewhere.

“Dude,” Bokuto says when he finishes. “That’s creepy as fuck.” 

Kuroo frowns. “Huh?” 

“You just went and ate dinner late at night, after dark, with two random guys who live in an old creepy house and own a practically abandoned motel?” Bokuto screeches. “Dude! You’re lucky to be alive! What if they were axe murderers and that gas station guy was their accomplice? I’d be so sad if you got murdered, dude!” 

Kuroo laughs into the phone. “I didn’t really think about it, I was so hungry and tired, bro. Besides, they were really nice! And they fed me.” 

Bokuto sighs heavily into the phone. “Dude. Please don’t get murdered. You’re my best friend!” 

“Aw, you’re my best friend too, Bo.” His eyes flick upwards when he sees a flash of movement out the window, and finds Keiji walking past, breath fogging out in front of him. Lady meows from her position curled up against Kuroo’s thigh. “Listen, the motel guy Keiji just walked past so I’m gonna go check out and hit the road.”

“Aw, bro! Don’t get murdered by creepy motel owners! Tell Lady I say hi! If you see an owl take a picture! Oh, better yet, a video!” 

Kuroo laughs, picking up Lady and cradling her to his chest and scanning the room one last time before stepping out into the morning air. “Sure thing, Bo. I’ll call you soon!” 

“You’d better!” 

Kuroo hangs up at that and makes his way to the office, remembering at the last minute that Keiji had said he’s allergic to cats and dropping Lady off in the car before going into the small office. Keiji is slumped over the desk, staring with tired, mournful eyes at some papers. He looks up when the bells on the door jingle and focuses in on Kuroo with suddenly sharp eyes. 

“Good morning, Kuroo. You’re up early.” 

“Mmmhm. Thought I’d get going as soon as I could, take a hike or something on the way to Cannon Beach,” Kuroo responds, mentally planning out his day. If he takes a hike and spends some time at the beach he should make it to Portland in time for dinner. Some real, good food sounds nice right now. 

“Sounds nice,” Keiji says, processing his charge for the stay on his computer before reading off the price. 

They’ve said their pleasantries and Kuroo’s about to slip out the door when Keiji seems to remember something and turns to him with a slight frown. “Oh, Kuroo?”

“Yeah?” Kuroo pauses by the door. 

“You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you?” Keiji asks, something about the weight of his tone giving the impression that this is far more important than it reasonably should be. 

“No,” Kuroo responds. “I was going to get something from one of the restaurants on my way out, or maybe stop in the next town.” 

Keiji visibly relaxes. “Don’t bother eating here, the coffee shop is terrible and the restaurant is worse,” he advises. “Just keep going north, there’s a little town with a much nicer little shop a few miles down the highway.” 

Kuroo nods, thinking it a bit odd Keiji would be so ready to throw his own town’s businesses to the dirt, but he appreciated the advice. “Thanks,” he says. “For the room, and the hot pocket, and the advice.” 

“It’s no problem,” Akaashi assures him with a small smile. “Drive safe.” 

“Thanks.” 

And with that Kuroo leaves the motel and steps back into the cold morning. It’s still deathly quiet despite being a more reasonable time of morning, only the chirping of birds and the crashing of the ocean to be heard. Not a single car passes down the road, which is curious, but it is early and the roads don’t look to be the safest on a frosty morning. 

Kuroo ducks into his car and immediately turns on the heater, humming contentedly as hot air slowly fills the car and he pulls out of the parking lot and up to the highway. Lady curls up in a spot in the backseat where hot air blows onto her from the back vents and promptly falls asleep, which only reminds Kuroo how horribly early it is. He turns on some peppy pop music to keep himself awake, and hums along to it absently as he turns into the highway and settles into the straightforward pattern of driving. Soon he comes upon the Elsewhere town sign, and looks back at Lady with a grin after they pass by it.

But when he turns, Lady’s not there.

Kuroo manages to restrain himself from slamming on the breaks in the middle of the road, but he does perform a rather precarious screeching halt by the side of the road. Normally Lady would be yowling and scratching at something after such a maneuver. The car is deathly silent. Kuroo leaps out of the car and scours the backseat, opens up the trunk, looks everywhere Lady could possibly have gone. The windows had been up, the doors had been locked, there’s no way she could’ve gotten out or any reason why she would. 

She’s just gone. 

Kuroo stands there in front of his car, panting from the frantic search and a little terrified. Cats don’t just disappear, he tells himself. Maybe you were hallucinating and she’s back in the hotel room, or outside in the cold waiting for you, freezing to death. 

That thought gets him to move, and he climbs back into the front seat and shoves his keys into the lock more violently than is strictly necessary. The road is still eerily silent, he notices, not a car to be seen or to get annoyed as he U-turns to come back the way he’d come, thoughts racing as he tries to come up with an explanation for Lady’s disappearance. 

He passes by the “Welcome to Elsewhere!” sign, and this time he really does slam on his brakes, because right by the side of the road Lady is pacing, looking cold and angry. 

It takes Kuroo less than 15 seconds to hop out of his car, run to his cat, and scoop her up, burying his face in her cold fur. She meows with annoyance but allows him to hold her, and he breathes out a sigh of relief. Still no explanation as to why she’s out here in the cold, but he’ll take what he can get. 

He’d parked the car just beyond the welcome sign (“parked” being a generous word-half of it is sticking haphazardly out into the road) so he trudges down the road toward it, trying to ignore the way the cold bites into his skin like needles. 

As he passes the sign, Lady suddenly disappears from his arms. 

Kuroo startles, staring down at his empty arms in utter confusion. “Lady?” 

A meow sounds behind him, and he turns to see her standing a few feet away, pawing at the air and yowling. She seems to be trying to scratch at something, but when Kuroo walks over and waves his arm around, he doesn’t meet any resistance. When he tries to carry her through, however, she simply appears a few feet behind him, yowling and getting progressively more annoyed.

After a few tries, Kuroo notices that the point where she vanishes is parallel to the welcome sign, and he narrows his eyes at it suspiciously. He’s not sure what’s going on, but Lady cannot move past that invisible border, and all this experimentation is only serving to piss off his cat.

He leaves Lady at the border for a moment and gets in the car, driving across it before picking her up and driving back towards the motel, cold and confused and angry. Lady curls into a ball in his lap, and he feels far too awful about whatever just happened to try and move her off, even though he doesn’t like driving with her there and her fur is damp. 

He pulls into the motel parking lot, glaring at the small line of rooms and the office at the end like they’ve done him some personal harm, which they just might’ve. Lady seems to agree, refusing to leave the car and hissing at the motel with her tail puffed up. 

Keiji looks up at him with genuine, wide-eyed confusion when Kuroo stomps back into the office, trying to arrange his thoughts into an order that makes sense. It crosses his mind that “my cat can’t leave this godforsaken town and I’m pretty sure it’s your fault” doesn’t sound particularly sane, but neither is this situation.

“My cat can’t leave this godforsaken town and I’m pretty sure it’s all your fault,” Kuroo says.

 

20 minutes later he’s sitting in Kenma and Keiji’s living room with a cup of tea in his hands, a very annoyed looking Kenma and an intensely focused Keiji staring at him and his cat. Lady sits on his lap obediently. Kenma looks like he just got out of bed, hair curly and mussed and eyes drooping with sleepiness. Kuroo absentmindedly thinks he looks cute like this, then mentally yells at himself for thinking that about the creepy motel owner who may or may not have worked some kind of evil magic on his cat. 

“You’re sure it was the border?” Keiji asks him for the third time, and Kuroo sighs. 

“Parallel to the welcome sign. She couldn’t get anywhere past that.” 

Keiji frowns, staring hard at Lady, who continues to lick her paw without a care in the world. Kuroo wishes he were a cat. Cats don’t have to take chemistry tests or work or mind much if they get trapped in weird foreign towns during road trips. 

“What did you feed her last night?” Keiji asks, and Kuroo’s mind drifts to how concerned Keiji and Kenma had seemed to be about his diet. 

“Um…” he wracks his brain, trying to remember. “Oh! I didn’t, but I guess Kenma fed her some meat when he came to pet her?” 

Kenma stiffens, eyes narrowing then widening almost comically. It would be funny, except that he looks abjectly horrified and Keiji is staring at him like he’s dropped down from the ceiling. 

“You what?” Keiji demands, sounding absolutely shocked. Kenma continues to stare in horror and what Kuroo thinks might be guilt at Lady. 

“Shit,” Kenma says in his soft voice, though his tone pierces as though he were screaming. “Shit, shit shit shit, I wasn’t thinking, I just…” he trails off listlessly. “Shit.”

Keiji is continues to stare at Kenma. Kenma continues to stare at Lady. Kuroo is looking between all three and trying to piece together what is going on. For a solid minute no one says anything, and Kuroo’s mind races through the reasons why a few innocent pieces of meat would cause his cat to somehow become cursed, and on to how long it’s going to take before he and Lady can get out of here. 

“So,” Keiji says slowly. “To make a long story very, very short, your cat is cursed to live in this town until she dies.” 

Kuroo throws his head back and shrieks when it hits solid wood wall. Kenma jumps. “Are you ok?” he asks, genuine concern lacing his tone, and Kuroo nods to hide a wince when he rubs the spot. Keiji’s giving him a very, very concerned look. 

“This must come as a shock,” he says gently. 

“Uh,” Kuroo scrambles to find the phrase he’s looking for. “Yeah. Actually, I’m sorry, what the fuck?” 

Kenma groans and slumps down on the couch, pulling a blanket around himself and over his head. Keiji tugs the part over his face back down, which earns him a glare Keiji pointedly ignores. “I’m such a terrible person,” Kenma mutters into his blanket. 

“Essentially, there is a curse over this town that anyone who eats food prepared here is stuck here for the rest of their lives,” Keiji explains. Kuroo’s not sure he completely understands or belives any of this, so he clutches Lady tighter and tried to make it look like he’s following this guy. “Packaged foods, stuff like instant ramen or hot pockets, doesn’t count,” he adds, and a few things line up in Kuroo’s brain. 

“So basically,” he says, slowly to make sure he’s not crazy, “what you’re telling me is that Lady can’t leave this town because some crazy person got pissed and decided to put some really badly thought out curse on this place.” 

“Basically.”

Kenma lets out a loud, undignified snort, which earns him a glare from Keiji (most of their interactions seem to include lots of glaring, and Kuroo is beginning to think these two have some sort of psychic connection because he feels like he’s missing half the conversation whenever they talk). Kenma raises his eyebrows at him, and Kuroo watches as Keiji’s lip twitches upwards and seems to fight back a laugh. Definitely some sort of psychic bond. 

Kenma turns to him with a slight frown. “I’d be happy to take care of your cat, Kuroo,” he says, absolutely sincerely, and Kuroo remembers how much Lady had loved the guy last night. A big part of him still doesn’t want to believe this at all, but he’d tried to carry Lady over the border more times than he can remember and failed himself, and he’s always had a healthy amount of self confidence. 

Lady cuddles further into his arms, and the thought of leaving her behind suddenly seems like the worst idea in the world. “No,” he says definitively. “I’m not leaving her.” 

Kenma’s eyebrows shoot up, and Keiji frowns deeply at him. “You intend to stay here with your cat?” Keiji asks incredulously. Kuroo nods stubbornly. 

“You’d probably end up getting stuck too,” Kenma tells him, piercing gaze boring a hole through Kuroo’s forehead and making him want to shudder. Something about the guy’s gaze sets him on edge and makes him feel far too closely observed. 

“I’d prefer not to have this,” Keiji waves a hand at Lady, “ball of allergies in the house anyway. You’re free to stay.” 

Kenma turns to him with a glare so severe Kuroo wants to run for the door just observing from a distance. “No,” he says venomously, “he can’t.” 

Keiji, impressively, doesn’t back down. “He can do whatever he wants.” 

Kenma turns to Kuroo, residual venom from the glare pinning him to his seat. “You should get out of here before this town swallows you whole,” he spits, untangling himself from the blankets and trudging up the stairs before either Keiji or Kuroo can say anything.

Keiji watches him go upstairs with a frown before turning to Kuroo with a sigh. “You shouldn’t listen to him too much. This town is complicated, and Kenma likes to make it out to be more sinister than it is.” 

Kuroo cocks a brow, privately thinking that a town that traps people (and cats) there for the rest of their lives is pretty sinister, but doesn’t voice his opinion. Neither Keiji nor Kenma seem like people he should ever cross, and he gets the feeling he’ll be walking the tightrope of keeping them both happy for however long he’s here. 

“You’re welcome to stay here at the motel,” Keiji starts. “For however long you plan to stay.” 

Kuroo doesn’t really think about what he plans to do if Lady is really, truly stuck. Today, he’s going to go all around the border of this wretched town and find somewhere he can sneak Lady and himself out. The curse, or whatever it is that’s trapped Lady, has to have some kind of flaw, somewhere. If there’s anything Kuroo’s learned from four years of exclusively studying science, it’s that everything has a fault. 

“Thank you,” he responds, not ready to jump into the logistics of his future plans (he never has been-college had been a last minute decision, he still hasn’t decided about graduate school, and to be perfectly honest he had trouble planning what he wanted to dinner every night). Lady nuzzles his arm affectionately-he swears she can understand that he’s giving up at the very least his road trip for her.

They finish their respective cups of tea in relative silence. Kuroo’s not entirely sure how to start a conversation with Keiji, and the guy’s stony facial expressions and absolutely blunt way of talking aren’t doing Kuroo any favors. At some point Lady falls asleep, probably entirely unaware of their current predicament. Or maybe she knows, and is happy to be off the road for a while. Kuroo loves her, but he’s not a cat whisperer.

Once he’s done with his tea Kuroo makes his escape after a few awkward, stilted pleasantries exchanged with Keiji. Lady refuses to walk so Kuroo carries her out the door, glad for her warm, fluffy fur when the cold outside hits him. He’ll probably never get used to the way the cold of fog seeps into his bones and weaves its way through his sweater like it doesn’t exist, and he can’t help agreeing with Lady’s miffed, pitiful meow as she buries her face into the crook of Kuroo’s elbow. 

The walk is somehow more eerie than it was that night, all the colors bleached by the fog which has yet to burn off. He uses the walk to contemplate what to do with his day now that he’s stuck here, where to start in his attempt to find the hole in this curse’s defenses. It makes him think of volleyball, always finding the chink in the opponent’s armor and using it against them. It’s the same strategy, he tells himself. 

The motel room’s warmer than it had been that morning when he drags his bag back into it, followed by a shivering Lady. Keiji’s cleaned the room (or at least made the bed) and shut the window, and Lady immediately jumps onto the bed and fits herself between two of the pillows, shutting her eyes and presumably falling asleep. Once again, Kuroo wishes he were a cat. 

He considers following Lady’s example and taking a nap, but considering how little sleep Kuroo got the night before that nap will probably turn into an all-day affair and he wants to minimize the amount of time between now and his grand escape from town. If that means not taking a nap with his adorable cat in this surprisingly comfortable bed, he’ll do it. 

The first order of business, Kuroo decides, is some coffee. He’s not sure if it counts as food and will get him trapped here along with Lady, but seeing as he won’t be leaving without her, it probably doesn’t matter in the long run. 

He gives Lady a kiss goodbye after he almost leaves without doing it and the feeling of almost losing her flashes before his eyes, once again braving the cold and his icy car to make his way into town and hopefully the coffee shop. 

It’s an easy place to find, shoved in between the post office and a thrift store. The name reads “The Sirens Call”, which Kuroo finds hilariously appropriate considering his horrible addiction to coffee that haunts him from college, and he appreciates the nautical theme in the front decorations as he parks his car and makes his way inside. 

There’s a few customers sitting at tables in the small shop, an old man wearing a neon orange beanie, a high school age girl with textbooks spread out in front of her and deep under-eye circles, and a young man enthusiastically chatting to the barista, a man around Kuroo’s age with perfectly neat hair Kuroo imagines is taunting his atrocious bedhead. 

“...And that’s how Mrs. Lee died, supposedly, but what she told me was that-” Kuroo catches a bit of some odd story the redhead was telling before the barista clears his throat unnecessarily loudly and gives Kuroo a wide, thin smile that grates on Kuroo’s nerves for reasons he can’t explain. The redhead, who upon closer inspection is probably a decent five centimeters shorter than Yaku, stares up at him in surprise before breaking out into a huge grin. Kuroo wonders what drugs this kid is on to be this excited this early in the morning. 

“Whoa! You’re new, right? I’m Shouyou! Nice to meet you! Are you the guy Kenma told me about?” 

Kuroo blinks at the kid for a few seconds, suddenly having trouble comprehending the English language. He’s had a rough morning, he reasons with himself. 

“Uh, yes,” he responds after a delay. “I’m Kuroo.” 

“Nice to meet you,” the barista cuts in smoothly with a smile. “Would you like something to drink, Kuroo?” 

“Oh,” Kuroo finds himself staring at the menu before he knows quite what he’s doing, contemplating the array of different drinks. He’s not entirely sure what half of them mean, and in the end just orders plain coffee to get the barista’s eyes off of him. 

“Coming right up,” the barista says primly. “I recommend trying one of our pastries, they’re the best in the county.” 

Before he can obediently choose some baked good from the display case he catches the glare Shouyou sends to the barista before grabbing his arm. “Don’t bother with that,” he tells him with another sunny smile, though Kuroo swears there’s something terrifying just underneath it. “They taste like cardboard and are way overpriced!” 

Kuroo blinks and suddenly remembers that he probably shouldn’t eat any of the pastries, which would cement his chances of getting stuck in this place if the coffee doesn’t already do the job. He shakes his head at the barista, ignoring his stomach, which is telling him that it needs something besides a single hot pocket and coffee. Mind over matter, Kuroo furiously chants to himself inside his head.

“So,” Shouyou says as the barista goes to work on Kuroo’s coffee, “where are you from? What are you doing here?” 

“I’m from Tokyo,” Kuroo replies, shooting the pastries one last, longing look. “I was just passing through, I’m taking a road trip.” 

“Wahh that’s so cool!” Shouyou exclaims, eyes glittering. “I’ve never been outside of town, but I want to see the whole world someday.” 

Kuroo beams at Shouyou, succumbing to the kid’s infectious optimism. “I’m sure you will,” he replies, and he really does hope he has the chance to get out of here. Kuroo’s already starting to feel locked into the place, and he’s only been to the motel, the gas station, and this shop. 

Shouyou starts chattering about how he knows Kenma and Keiji and that he sometimes helps out at the motel when he doesn’t have school (he’s a high school senior, which surprises Kuroo-he’d thought him much younger). He reminds him of Bokuto, all wild hand gestures and endless dialogue and wide, infectious smiles, and that brings along a pang of homesickness that Kuroo does his best to shove right back down. His adventure has just begun, he doesn’t need to be thinking about home now. 

The barista gets him his coffee with a slightly venomous smile that Kuroo returns with what he gauges as a proper amount of snark, saying goodbye to Shouyou with the promise of seeing him next time they’re both at the motel. 

Despite the unpleasant and more-than-a-little creepy barista the coffee is good, warming Kuroo’s stomach and fingers pleasantly as he takes a sip. The town is still hauntingly quiet despite being mid-morning, but Kuroo finds that he doesn’t mind the silence anymore. He’s always appreciated the peace of the countryside, removed from the busy, constantly moving city life he’d grown up in, but he’d never gotten the chance to experience it alone. He’d thought, setting out, that he would feel lonely, but all of the time on the road and in his own thoughts has calmed Kuroo and, surprisingly enough, taken his mind off of the problems and choices that had seemed so monumental back home. 

“If it wasn’t for this damned curse,” he thinks as he slips into his car, “this road trip could’ve been just about perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!  
> And, as always: roast me.


	3. fish and chips make everything better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, and Tadashi swears he saw a new rabbit out in the forest today!” he hears coming from the tall man as he enters the store, with what is probably an inappropriate amount of enthusiasm and hand gestures. “How cool is that?” 
> 
> “Very,” Suga, slumped behind the register, replies with a warm smile before glancing behind the giant in front of him, eyes lighting up with curiosity when he spots Kuroo. “Kuroo! Decided to stick around, I see?”
> 
> “Don’t have much of a choice,” Kuroo mutters under his breath, and he can tell Suga heard him by the way his face darkens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's... been a while. I promise the chapter breaks won't be as long from now on! I do have a bunch of buffer chapters now.  
> Well, it's up. Enjoy!

He gets all the way to the town border before realizing that besides the town sign, he has no way of knowing where the border is. Trees stretch off to one side and cliff to the other, utterly unmarked to Kuroo’s foreign eye. All he can see is unfamiliar landscape and an utterly deserted segment of highway. He briefly entertains the idea of bringing Lady out here with him, but she’s been through quite enough lately. He should let her rest. 

That leaves him to try and think of someone from the town who’d be willing to go traipsing in the woods looking for an invisible magical border with a strange outsider who can leave whenever he wants. Kenma, he assumes, is either too pissed to help or asleep (he might be able to guilt trip the guy into going with him, but he’d prefer a more willing companion if he can find one). Keiji would probably tell him to lay off or that he has to care for the motel while Kenma stews. 

It only makes Kuroo feel a little lonely that he can’t think of anyone else to come with him. He’s only been in town for a night, after all. Still, the loneliness seeps into his bones like the morning fog’s chill. He can’t help thinking that if he had Bokuto, Daichi, even Yaku with him, everything would be fine. 

He groans as he climbs back into his car, trying to think of a way to explain his unprecedented layover in some tiny backwater to any of them. Daichi would probably convince himself that Kuroo had gone insane or gotten himself kidnapped and drive up, then get himself trapped in the town right alongside Kuroo and Lady.   
He drives himself back into town idly, sipping at his coffee and peering at the little shops that decorate downtown. People are starting to wander among them, but it’s a lazy Saturday morning, and it’s quietly peaceful in a way that makes Kuroo want to do something, anything but drive or walk around this place. It all feels aimless when the town is his prison.

He passes by the coffee shop again and sends it a vengeful glare when he remembers the oddly persuasive barista who’d tried to get him to eat the pastry, probably with the purpose of luring him into getting trapped here like his cat. He hadn’t pushed the border but judging by the barista’s efforts and Shouyou’s insistence that he not eat anything, Kuroo suspects the coffee doesn’t have the same curse placed on it as the food. The coffee addict in him rejoices. 

Eventually he reaches the edge of town and pushes through it just to see if he still can. He speeds by the “Leaving Elsewhere” sign without a hitch, but is surprised when several cars materialize around him. It had been so late the night before that no other cars had been on the road, but now he considers the impossibility that so many cars are driving in the direction of Elsewhere but none actually pass through it. Everything about the town strikes him entirely the wrong way, especially the impossible but frighteningly real curses, but this is an impossibility Kuroo has the feeling he can work his mind around. 

When he sees a lookout he stops, taking a moment to snap some pictures of the beautiful view of the ocean. Most of the fog has cleared away but it remains a drearily overcast day, the clouds dark and striking against the deep blue of the water, and Kuroo takes a moment to enjoy the fresh sea breeze and clear his head. He wishes Lady were with him, briefly, but the image of her curled up in between two pillows on the hotel room bed is enough to quell his guilt. 

An older couple comes up to him at the lookout asking if he knows anywhere to stay for the night just a little further north, and he tells them he’s going the same way and doesn’t know anywhere to stay. The thought of them, of any of the scattered tourists and locals he sees at the spot, getting pulled in and trapped by the town makes him shudder, and reminds him of how sinister it all is. He’s a flexible guy and is still wrapping his brain around the whole thing. 

He stays there for a while, just watching the waves and letting his mind wander arbitrarily. It makes its way to his life back in Tokyo, and to the very reason why he’d taken the opportunity to get away so readily in the first place. He’d been too distracted to think about it since arriving in Elsewhere, but now he can’t seem to pull himself out of thoughts of hands smaller than his own and a mischievous grin and quiet, early mornings in Yaku’s kitchen. 

He shakes his head in a vain attempt to rid himself of the memories and sighs at his loss of that sense of peace the ocean has always instilled in him, pushing off the railing and ambling back to his car. More people have begun to fill the lookout spot as the day leans towards noon, and Kuroo’s rumbling stomach reminds him that he’s had way too little to eat in the last 24 hours. 

He consults his map once back in the car and picks one of the bigger towns to the south as his lunch spot, deciding he might as well make an outing of this if he’s going to spend an indefinite amount of his future trying to break out of Elsewhere. He’d passed through it on his way north, and mentally chides himself for not stopping there for the night as he starts his car back up and pulls out of the lookout.

The road’s twists and turns don’t bother him so much in the light of day, even with the cars, and he arrives in Depoe Bay fairly quickly. It’s a beautiful little town centered around a sheltered little harbor and looking to be maybe about twice the size of Elsewhere. It’s not a city but it’s bustling with locals and a few tourists brave enough to come out in March, and it reminds Kuroo of how unnaturally quiet and deserted Elsewhere is. He tries to shove the thought from his mind. 

He manages to find a place to park near a seafood restaurant and steps inside the place, inhaling the familiar scent of frying food and an underlying odor of fish that seems to cling to the town. Despite the lunch rush he’s seated fairly quickly, the benefits of being alone, and gets his order in not long after. Back home he almost never went out alone, always disliking the idea of being perceived as lonely or getting bored as he ate. Now he’s content to people watch as he waits for his food, observing a nearby family from the corner of his eye and listening in on the squabbling of a couple of people around his age in the table next to his booth. 

It’s nice to blend in as just another tourist instead of being the subject of the calculating gazes he receives back in Elsewhere. The food is a little too greasy for his taste but the fish is fresh and he’s too hungry to really care as he digs in, continuing his observation of the other customers as he tries to eat with some semblance of dignity despite how ravenous he feels. 

He leaves the restaurant in higher spirits than when he’d arrived, in a better frame of mind to tackle the task ahead. He uses the drive back to Elsewhere to brainstorm ideas for how to break, or at least outsmart, the curse, but he finds that with his limited knowledge of the mechanics of the thing it’s hard to even start thinking about how to get around it. The idea of a curse doesn’t fit any formula for scientific thinking he’s come across, and he gets the feeling his once-useful ability to break things down, simplify them, and label them in order to understand them may be more of a burden than a gift. 

Soon enough the “Welcome to Elsewhere” sign comes into view and Kuroo snaps to attention, curious to see what happens to the car in front of him when it attempts to cross the town’s border. It’s a big, bright blue minivan, impossible to miss against the muted green background, and Kuroo fixes his eyes on it with the concentration that had gotten him through four years of college at one of the best schools in Japan. 

He’s not sure if he’s surprised or not when the car simply vanishes moments before the border. On one hand, cars disappearing is a fundamentally odd, even impossible occurrence, but on the other it’s not the weirdest thing he’s seen since last night and it fits the pieces of the town’s story he’s been given so far. He shudders involuntarily as he passes through the border without a hitch.

He quietly rides through town, contemplating his next step. He wants to find someone to ask about the curse to get a better idea of how to go about this, but so far his best idea has been Kenma, and he’s not entirely sure what the guy’s mood is like right now and how he would feel about feeding Kuroo more information that could potentially keep him here for longer than if he just got frustrated and left. He supposes is what both the motel owners are hoping for that eventuality.. He wouldn’t have a problem leaving Lady with Kenma for a short while, but the thought of parting with her forever isn’t something Kuroo wants to think about for another 10 years at least. If he leaves her here to finish his road trip he knows things will just get worse than they are now, and who knows if he’d ever be able to find the place again.   
No, he needs to figure out this curse, and he needs to break it down if he can. 

He drives past the gas station and remembers Suga’s kindness the night before. He might have led Kuroo to the hotel and possibly been a key player in one of the worst decisions Kuroo’s made in his life, but he’d seemed open and hadn’t tried to feed Kuroo any cursed food, so he pulls into the station before he can overthink it too much.   
There’s one other car getting gas at the pumps, and Kuroo spots an impossibly tall man through the glass of the door as he approaches the store. 

“Oh, and Tadashi swears he saw a new rabbit out in the forest today!” he hears coming from the tall man as he enters the store, with what is probably an inappropriate amount of enthusiasm and hand gestures. “How cool is that?” 

“Very,” Suga, slumped behind the register, replies with a warm smile before glancing behind the giant in front of him, eyes lighting up with curiosity when he spots Kuroo. “Kuroo! Decided to stick around, I see?”

“Don’t have much of a choice,” Kuroo mutters under his breath, and he can tell Suga heard him by the way his face darkens. 

Before they can continue that train of thought the giant turns around, large green eyes lighting on Kuroo and sparkling with curiosity and excitement. Despite his height he looks young, maybe younger than Kuroo himself, with neat silver hair (does everyone in this town have perfect hair just to make Kuroo’s life even more of a living hell than it already is?) and a lanky awkwardness like he hasn’t had the opportunity to grow into his limbs quite yet. 

“Who’re you?” he asks bluntly, head cocked in an almost cartoonish way. 

“Kuroo,” he tells him before turning to Suga, who looks sadly contemplative. 

“So you’ve gotten the curse.” 

“Not quite,” Kuroo responds, mouth curling involuntarily because, alright, it is a little funny that he’d managed to escape the curse but poor old Lady hadn’t. “My cat.” 

Both stare at him blankly for a solid few seconds before Suga bursts out laughing and the tall stranger begins nearly vibrating in excitement. “You have a cat? What’s it’s name? Can I pet it? How come it got stuck? Are you staying in Kenma and Keiji’s motel? Did Kenma meet your cat?” 

Kuroo manages to shut the guy up with a single glare he pours every ounce of exhaustion, exasperation, and desperation into. He wishes he could do so with Suga, but he’s leaning against the counter with his eyes screwed shut, gasping for breath. 

Kuroo doesn’t really see why Suga finds his situation quite this funny, but he politely gives the guy a minute to settle down. 

“Sorry,” Suga says, still wearing an infectious grin. “It’s just… I bet Kenma is beside himself right now with that cat. He’s been trying to convince Akaashi to let him get one for ages.” 

The tall man is grinning, and Suga lets out a snort when he looks up. “And Lev. You’re going to get very popular very fast, Kuroo.” 

Kuroo can’t help returning the grin, mood that had been dampened by the return to Elsewhere lifting again. At least some of the townspeople seem kind, and if all else fails he can bribe himself into their good books with cat visits. If he ends up stuck here he could start a business. 

He remembers with a jolt why he’d come to the gas station in the first place, though he’s not entirely sure if he wants to bring it up in front of the stranger. He must be a local, but he might also be like the barista and want to feed him and trap him in this town forever. Kuroo’s sense of trust in strangers, he realizes, has tanked dramatically in a worryingly short amount of time. 

“I actually wanted to know more about the curse,” Kuroo starts, deciding to throw tact to the wind. Tact is for people with time and patience and no curses. 

Maybe he should have taken a bit more time to set that up, though, because Suga’s expression shutters. All traces of familiarity and kindness disappear from his expression, and he regards Kuroo with a kind of coldness he hadn’t expected from him. 

“I can’t tell you about that,” he says in a strangely monotone voice, devoid of any emotion or inflection. His eyes bore into Kuroo, the usual amusement and warmth gone, and it makes him shudder. He hears the bell on the door chime, and a quick glance to his right confirms that the tall stranger’s gone. 

When he turns back, the blank expression is gone from Suga’s face and he’s frowning at Kuroo, eyes clear once again, though Kuroo’s not sure if the sparkling intelligence he finds there is more or less frightening than the blank emptiness. Suga sighs. 

“I’m afraid I’m cursed not to be able to speak of… that,” he explains. “Certain members of this community are able to speak of such things and some are not, though I’m not sure you’ll find whatever it is you’re looking for.” 

“Thank you,” Kuroo says, because it’s all he can think of to say, and buys a pack of skittles and a small tin of cat food before heading out of the shop. The trip hadn’t been as fruitful as he’d hoped, but now he has something; he only needs to find someone who can talk about the curse and who’s willing to help him without putting him under the town’s curse as well. 

After getting in his car Kuroo decides to head back to the motel. He can’t think of anyone else who can help him, so it seems like he’ll have to convince (or, at worst, guilt) Kenma into helping him, assuming he isn’t under the same curse as Suga. He’s not entirely sure what Suga had meant when he’d said that Kuroo won’t find what he’s looking for, but he’s nothing if not competitive, and that more than anything motivates him. 

The motel is just as quiet as it always is when he pulls up into the parking space in front of his room, sighing at the increasingly familiar view of the wood and slightly peeling paint and brass numbers on the doors. He doesn’t want this place to be familiar. He doesn’t want to tie himself down or make friends or connections, he wants to get Lady and himself out of here as fast as he can and continue on his stupid road trip. He wants to see the whole country, or as much as he can before the money he has runs out, wants to find peace in the highways and unfamiliar places and faces and for once in his life focus on his plans for his future. 

Reluctantly, he gets out of his car and opens up the room, welcomed by a purring Lady winding around his legs and threatening to make him trip. He crouches down to pet her. Of all of the familiar things he’d thrown away or sold after he graduated, few things except for Lady had stayed. His car, clothing, old school work he’d decided to keep in case he did go to graduate school, and his cat had moved with him from a cold apartment that had once been warm into an even colder one. At first he’d relished the change, distracting himself with moving and redecorating and the feeling of a space not crawling with memories. But the coldness of the apartment had seeped in eventually, and he’d suddenly found himself lonely, with one of his best friends moving to San Francisco for graduate school and the other caught up in the life of a professional athlete. 

He’s pulled from his thoughts by the sound of keys in the door, startling . He doesn’t have time to wonder why Keiji or Kenma hadn’t seen his car out front and at least knocked before an oddly familiar red head pops into his room. 

Piercing brown eyes stare at him for a moment, shock playing across the boy’s childish features before he shrieks and runs out of the room, leaving the door open in the process. 

Kuroo blinks at the open door, and eventually the boy inches back into the doorway, eyes darting to the side and hands twitching. 

“I’m sorry! I thought you’d be out!” Shouyou says, nearly vibrating in place. It takes Kuroo a moment to process the ratty outfit, which he doesn’t remember from before, and cleaning supplies in tow before he remembers that Shouyou’d said he sometimes helps out at the motel.

“It’s fine!” Kuroo quickly amends, gears turning in his head. He hadn’t considered Shouyou an option before, as he’d talked to the guy for what amounted to about 10 seconds, but now Kuroo considers his jittery enthusiasm and the way he’d helped him at the shop. “You work here?” 

“I help out, Keiji said Kenma was sick or something, so he asked me to do the cleaning while he’s at the front desk.” He lets out a huff. “‘M not sure why though, no one ever comes through and all I have to do to most of the rooms is dust, and that’s quick.” 

Kuroo does a quick sweep of his room, finding that, besides some of his stuff strewn across the bed, the place is clean. He’s mostly been out of the place, after all, and he’s only been here a night. “I think my room’s ok for now,” he says, and he thinks Shouyou looks a bit relieved at that. “I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions, though.” 

Shouyou leans against the door frame and cocks one eyebrow. “Sure,” he says, his tone maybe a bit too casual.

“So, uh,” Kuroo begins, mentally hitting himself. “My cat got caught under the curse thing.” Shouyou nods fervently, glancing over to Lady, who’s stretched out gracelessly on the bed and is regarding the boy with half-closed eyes. “And I don’t want to leave without her.” 

“Kenma texted me about that!” Shouyou informs him. “She’s a really pretty cat, by the way, what’s her name again?” 

“Lady,” Kuroo responds, unable to keep the fondness out of his voice, and Shouyou breaks out into a blinding grin. “Anyway, I’m not leaving without her, so I need a way to get both of us out.” 

Shouyou cocks his head at him. “That’s impossible, though? The curse is unbreakable.” 

Kuroo sighs. He’d figured he’d be told that by the townspeople who’d been living here their whole lives, unwilling to really try to get out. 

“I tried to break it, or at least get around it, with this witch friend of mine, but it didn’t work.” 

“You tried?” Kuroo’s surprised by that fact, but his mind catches up to Shouyou’s exact wording a minute later, and surprise turns to confusion. “Wait, witch friend?” 

Shouyou gives him a blank look. “Uh, yeah. Who do you think places curses?” 

Lady struts over to the kid and he leans down to let Lady sniff at his hand, petting her head when she doesn’t pull away. 

Kuroo stares at him, trying to reason this out. It hadn’t quite occurred to him that where there’s a curse there must be someone who cast that curse, but he’s certain that a lot of things about this town simply haven’t occurred to him. 

“I hadn’t thought about that,” he admits quietly. Then he frowns, mind fitting the puzzle pieces together and immediately jumping on the blank spots, wanting to fill them and make the picture complete. “Well, who cast the curse, then?”

Shouyou shrugs. “The guardian of the land and his servant,” he responds, as though something like that would be obvious. “I’m not really sure about the details, but the guardian wants everyone out and the servant, who’s a witch, wants everyone in, so they’re constantly trying to out-curse each other.” He punctuates this declaration, which has Kuroo gaping at him, with a roll of his eyes.

“The guardian of the land,” Kuroo repeats.

“Yeah, he’s super powerful,” Hinata tells him, giggling as Lady props her forepaws on his thigh to rub her cheek against his. “Dude, you have the best cat in the whole world.”

“So if we could convince the servant to lift the curse, or to make an exception, I could get out of here,” Kuroo says in amazement, looking with new eyes at who he now considers to be his new best friend. “Shouyou, that’s genius!”

Shouyou shoots him a flat look, which isn’t as effective as he probably wants it to be in his kneeling position with Lady half crawling across him, purring. “Yeah, been there, done that,” he says. “No one gets out.”

Kuroo slumps, working over that half-formed plan in his mind. The servant, he assumes, is who cursed the town to force everyone to stay. Trying to convince him to lift the curse for Kuroo or finding a way around it, hopefully with Shouyou’s witch friend’s help, might work, but he wants to try something besides going to a presumably very powerful witch and showing all his cards before he resorts to that. 

“What about the guardian of the land?” he asks, and Shouyou blinks up at him before frowning. 

“Him? No one besides the servant guy, I guess, has ever seen him. Normally the guardian is pretty involved with the town, or that’s what the old people say, but he’s a total hermit. Probably has all kinds of wards around his place up the mountain, no one dares to go there.” 

“What kind of wards?” Kuroo asks, a plan is forming in his mind. He may not be a witch or a land guardian but he has a degree in chemistry from one of the best universities in Japan. He can figure out puzzles, and that’s what this business with the curse really is--a three-dimensional, overly complicated puzzle. 

Shouyou sits down properly on the floor and allows Lady to crawl all the way into his lap. Kuroo’s never seen her so friendly with a stranger before, even Kenma, but she looks adorably content in Shouyou’s lap as he absentmindedly strokes her. Kuroo sits down across from him. 

“Magical ones, probably mind tricks that turn you around,” Shouyou muses. “It’s his magic that keeps the town hidden, but I don’t know if he replicated it to hide his house from us, or if he can do that.” Shouyou’s eyes suddenly light up. “But if he didn’t use the hiding magic on his place, I think I can get us in!” 

The first part of Shouyou’s speech had left Kuroo stumped, because while he’s pretty good at puzzles he has absolutely no knowledge of how magic works, but he leans forward at Shouyou’s newfound enthusiasm. “How?” he asks. 

“We’re going to need Lev,” Shouyou tells him. “He’s a psychic! He’ll be able to tell if the visions are real or not.” 

Kuroo takes a moment to process this, trying to place a face to the name Lev because it sounds familiar, and comes up with the lanky guy in Suga’s shop who’d run the moment Suga had gone all weird. He didn’t exactly give off the all-knowing vibe he’d expect from a psychic, but the idea of psychics existing is still processing in his mind, so he’s ready to excuse that. 

“Okay,” he says as Shouyou whips out his phone and scrolls through his contacts, lifting the phone to his ear. There’s a moment of silence, then Kuroo hears loud, unintelligible shouting from the other end of the line. 

“Lev! This dude’s cat got trapped in town and we need you to come with us to the guardian of the land’s place to convince him to do something about it!” Shouyou says cheerfully into the phone, and Kuroo winces at his bluntness. If it were him on the other side of the line he’d have hung up before Shouyou could finish. 

There’s a few more exchanges of words that are too rushed (and, Kuroo, assumes, full of slang) for him to understand, and Shouyou hangs up with a huge grin. “He’ll help us!” he says, and Kuroo breathes out a sigh of relief. He’s not as confident as he could be in the sanity of Shouyou or Lev, but he’s grateful they’re bothering to help him when everyone else seems keen to hide as much as they can from him. 

“Thank god,” he mutters to himself in Japanese, and Shouyou gives him an odd look before gently removing Lady from his lap and standing up. 

“Lev said to drop by his house,” Shouyou tells him. “That’s your car, right? Can we take it? Lev’s house is up the hill and I don’t feel like walking.”

“Uh,” Kuroo stands up from the floor, “Sure.” 

“Great!” Shouyou kicks the door open and gives Lady one last pet. “I’m going to drop the cleaning cart off and then let’s go!” 

He hurries off with the cart towards a little shed at the end of the strip of shops, and Kuroo sighs before closing the door and looking down at Lady. She meows back up at him. 

“Lady, is this really worth it?” 

She weaves between his legs like she likes to do, and it reminds Kuroo of all of the times he’d tripped over her in bleary mornings or stumbling home drunk, all the times he’d told her about his problems and the late nights studying she’d sat with him through, purring and warm pressed up against his knee. She’d been a gift from Bokuto when he’d moved in with Yaku after the dorms, but despite living with the both of them she’d always followed Kuroo around and snuggled with him when he studied or at night. She’d been his constant after graduation as he struggled to figure out what to do. 

He sighs and grabs his keys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roast me.


	4. blackberry bushes are inherently evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you ok?” Shouyou asks him. 
> 
> “Yes,” Kuroo replies, because it’s his only option right now. Be ok, talk to this crazy land guardian, and get out of here before he goes insane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe we can all just pretend this isn't 3 weeks late and be happy!

The drive to Lev’s house is remarkably short, which shouldn’t surprise Kuroo. To Shouyou’s credit it is up a rather steep hill, but it takes them less than five minutes to get there even with Shouyou’s horrible sense of direction, and the tall kid is waiting outside, somehow folded into a seated position on the curb. Shouyou cranks down the window furiously and leans out, shouting unintelligibly and waving his arms.

“Shouyou! Other guy!” Lev shouts back, pausing to give Hinata a very enthusiastic high-five before folding himself into the backseat. Kuroo’s unsure that’s physically possible, but Lev’s not complaining, so he leaves it. 

“So,” Lev prompts. “Where are we off to?” 

“I already told you! We have to go to the guardian of the land’s house so he can let Kuroo here and his cat, Lady, who’s the cutest by the way, out of here!” Hinata explains in one rushed breath before Kuroo can even open his mouth, twisting around in his seat to face Lev. 

“Oh, ok!” Lev replies like this makes perfect sense. “Why do you need me though?” 

“Well, the guardian’s place has a ton of spells and illusions guarding it, right?” Hinata asks, Lev nodding in response. “Well, I figured most of them are probably illusions! Or at least some of them. And since psychics can see through illusions, I figured you could lead us through them!”

Lev nods furiously. “Sure! Illusions are easy!” 

Kuroo doesn’t know anything about psychics, or why they’d be able to distinguish illusions from reality, but he decides to take it in stride. He’ll be happy to dodge as much of whatever’s waiting for them up on that mountain as possible. Too many things that make him want to turn tail and run have been popping into his life lately. 

Shouyou directs him to a parking lot a ways up into the woods further up the hill, right in front of a trailhead. “It only goes so far,” Shouyou tells him, “Supposedly, you just keep going up through the woods from the lookout point and eventually you’ll reach the boundary, or the land guardian’s protective wards or whatever.”  
The three of them pile out of the car, but Kuroo is brought up short by an odd sensation, like a memory he can’t quite remember escaping his thoughts or a dream fading. It darts at the back of his mind, but he can’t place exactly what it is. 

He shakes his head to clear it and focuses on his odd little group, which is currently stalling as Lev ties his shoe at a remarkably slow pace. The feeling in Kuroo’s head doesn’t let up but he elects to ignore it, snickering when Shouyou hits Lev hard on the back and demands he hurry up. Lev at least has the decency to look embarrassed and soon Shouyou’s leading them across the parking lot, completely devoid of any other cars even on a clear, cool day. 

The trail leads into a cool, dark forest, thick branches twisting overhead and blocking out the sunlight that had warmed Kuroo earlier. The trail is thin and full of tree roots he trips over constantly while Shouyou and Lev stride confidently ahead, obviously familiar with the trail (or hiking in general). The two chatter on as they delve deeper, probably gossiping about people Kuroo doesn’t know. He’s too on edge about trying to break into a land guardian’s magically protected house to pay attention, and frankly, he’s more than a little worried that Shouyou and Lev are acting far too relaxed about their plan, which seems to be find a problem and throw Lev at it. The persistent itch in the back of his mind isn’t exactly helping his mental state either. 

Shouyou looks back at Kuroo as they stop below a huge tree by the side of the trail and Lev pulls out a water bottle, taking a long swig and passing it to Shouyou as they wait for him to catch up. He’d fallen a few paces behind, lost in his thoughts and trying to maneuver the trail without falling. The itch only gets worse as they stop, and Kuroo’s had quite enough of it. 

“Is there any chance this land guardian’s magic affects minds?” he grumbles after taking a long drink from the bottle. Shouyou cocks his head to one side.   
“What do you mean?” he asks, suspicion sneaking into his voice. Lev looks very interested in packing the water bottle away in his backpack. 

“I mean,” Kuroo starts, noticing the feeling is receding, “I’m not sure, I just had this odd feeling like I couldn’t remember something all of a sudden, and I wondered if it could’ve been one of the land guardian’s defences.” 

Shouyou turns to glare at Lev, an odd sight considering their drastic height difference. “Lev,” he says, sounding annoyed. “Stop.”

Suddenly the itch is gone, and Lev is looking at him sheepishly. “Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t look at anything personal! I promise!” 

It takes Kuroo a moment to realize that oh yeah, Lev’s a psychic, and once he does he gets the sudden but strong urge to pummel the kid. 

“You went poking around my brain?” Kuroo asks, trying desperately to school his tone, and Lev looks guiltily to the side. 

“Just a little,” Lev admits. “I wanted to see what Tokyo looks like! Sorry about the weird feeling though, Kenma won’t teach-” 

Shouyou suddenly elbows Lev in the side, hard, and Lev shrieks indignantly. Kuroo tries to make sense of what Lev just said, suddenly paranoid that the guy is in there now and watching his younger self go through his emo phase or that time he and Bokuto egged a volleyball rival’s house at 3 AM while drunk or something equally embarrassing that he’ll be able to hold over Kuroo’s head. Then his brain catches up with the Kenma part. 

“Wait,” Kuroo says with a frown. “Kenma?” 

Hinata looks like a deer caught in headlights and Lev stares at Kuroo with a blank expression, and he can’t even appreciate the moment of silence from both of them because his mind is turning over what Lev just said. 

“Kenma’s a psychic?” he asks. 

“Er… yes,” Shouyou finally bites out. “We totally didn’t tell you that though! He’d probably kill us if he knew we told you, he’s kind of scary when he wants to be and I want to at least graduate before I die,” Lev nods furiously along with this, “So please don’t mention it to him!”

Kuroo wonders just how much Kenma knows about him, and shudders involuntarily at the thought. He’s far from a closed-off guy, but the idea of people he doesn’t know poking around in his brain makes him more than a little uncomfortable. He gives Lev his best death glare. The guy has the decency to look terrified.

“You’re not a psychic too, are you?” he grumbles, turning to Shouyou, who shakes his head furiously. 

“No!” he replies, and Kuroo finds he believes him. “Uh… I can talk to the dead, though?” 

Kuroo gives him a long, searching look. Finding nothing but utter sincerity in Shouyou’s gaze he turns away from the two, takes in a deep breath, and screams. 

Lev and Shouyou don’t say anything, just patiently wait for Kuroo to be done, and when he turns back around they’re both looking at him with something akin to sympathy. He really doesn’t want it, but at least they have some idea of the absolute insanity they’re dragging him into. Kuroo kind of wishes he’d taken Lady along with him so at least one thing about this whole situation wouldn’t be so absolutely horrible and foreign, but she’s back in the hotel room as usual, napping without a care in the world. He wonders if there’s anyone in this place with the ability to turn him into a cat so he can just nap and eat all day with her. It wouldn’t surprise him if there were. 

“Are you ok?” Shouyou asks him. 

“Yes,” Kuroo replies, because it’s his only option right now. Be ok, talk to this crazy land guardian, and get out of here before he goes insane. 

They set off again down the trail, but this time Shouyou and Lev try a little harder to stay with Kuroo’s pace, and he can tell they’re both trying to distract him by telling him stories about their school (they’re both seniors) and the people in their town Kuroo’s already met. He learns that the barista from earlier that day is called Daishou and that he’s an actual, real-life siren, which gives another meaning to the coffee shop’s name Kuroo resents.

The trail gets steeper and the conversation falters as they all trudge upwards, the cold air burning Kuroo’s lungs. Clouds have rolled over the sky once again, heavy and dark, and the air smells ominously like rain as they continue to climb. Lev and Shouyou don’t seem bothered by the sudden change in weather or what it promises so Kuroo resolves not to worry about it. He’d been told that it rains a lot up here, so he figures the locals must be used to it. 

They reach the lookout before long, a rock sticking out of the mountain overlooking the ocean with a rickety railing stretching around it. The view is gorgeous; he can look down and see where they’ve been climbing and the tiny town below and the cars on the highway just outside of town winding around a bend and out of sight. To them, the place must look like just another stretch of empty, mountainous forest, like any other part of the long highway down the coast. 

“From here we need to just continue upwards, I think!” Shouyou tells him brightly, pointing up the hill. All Kuroo can see are trees and heavy underbrush that looks impenetrable, ferns and blackberry bushes and probably acres of poison oak, because that’s what his luck has been like lately. 

“Oh, hell,” Kuroo mutters to himself.

The trek through the forest turns out to be just as terrible as he had predicted, full of stumbling over tree roots and bushes and getting scratched by god-knows-what. Shouyou and Lev are more graceful than he is but only marginally, Lev’s experience only partially making up for his lanky lack of grace. Kuroo can’t imagine they’re making much actual headway with how slowly they have to go and how steep the mountain is, but if this gets him out of here, it will all be worth it. 

That’s what he tells himself, at least, as he trips and sprawls halfway into a blackberry bush and feels the thorns pricking his exposed skin and tearing through his clothes. 

“Kuroo! Are you ok?” Lev gasps, picking his way through the underbrush and helping to extract Kuroo with minimal additional injury. 

“Fine,” he grunts out, assessing himself and concluding that besides a lot of tiny pinpricks and even more of an ache in his ankle than he already had, he’s fine. Before Lev can try to argue that point Shouyou’s voice sounds from up ahead. 

“Lev!” he calls, and the tall teenager shoots Kuroo a shrug before starting off towards the voice. Shouyou, as it turns out, is standing in front of what appears to be a wall of blackberry bush stretching far over even Lev’s head. Kuroo shudders. 

“Lev, is that real?” Shouyou asks, looking expectantly at Lev, who’s squinting at it. 

“Yeah,” he finally replies, and Shouyou lets out a long sigh. 

“Figures,” he mutters. “He’s the guardian of the land, of course he can make blackberry walls.”

The three stand in front of it for a while, contemplating it. The wall is unquestionably impenetrable, thick stalks and thorns tangled together so tightly Kuroo can’t see how deep it goes or what might be on the other side. 

“Do you think it stretches all the way around?” Kuroo asks suddenly. “I mean, they have to be able to get in and out somehow, they need food and shit.”   
Shouyou turns to him with sparkling eyes, then whips around to stare at Lev. “If there were a door, or a weak spot, could you find it?” 

Lev frowns, but even Kuroo can tell it’s not a defeated frown. He’s thinking. “Yes, if I were close enough!” he finally responds, grinning at Shouyou with an equal amount of enthusiasm. Kuroo wonders where they get it from. 

Shouyou jumps, and for a moment Kuroo is shocked by how high he goes, tiny frame he doubts is over 165 centimeters level with Lev for a moment. Lev doesn’t seem surprised at all, and the two jump into some kind of complicated handshake routine Kuroo doesn’t want to know the origin story of. 

Once Shouyou and Lev are done they pick a random direction to go in and start walking, Lev sticking close to the towering brambles and quieter than Kuroo thought he could be. Shouyou chatters to Kuroo instead, letting Lev focus, he supposes, mostly about the motel and how few customers they get, mostly local teenagers or people doing renovations on their houses. 

“We don’t get a lot of people coming through,” Shouyou explains. “Once in awhile someone like you comes around, but they usually end up trapped here, and it hasn’t happened in ages.” 

“Who was the last person?” Kuroo asks, suddenly curious. 

“Oh,” Shouyou smiles. “Chika! He’s great. He and Keiji are kind of dating, and he was my history teacher for like five years.” 

Kuroo hums, trying to picture the guy in his mind. He’d like to meet him if this plan doesn’t pan out, and if he’s dating Keiji he’ll probably see the guy around. 

“He came around.. Five years ago, maybe? We’ve had a couple of people stop by, but me and Kenma and a few other people usually try to get them out of here before they get cursed. Chika’s a total coffee addict though, so he went straight to The Siren’s Call and Suguru got to him.” 

That guy again. He may not know much about magic, but it seems pretty evil to put people under it to make them buy stuff, and more evil to curse them into being trapped somewhere for the rest of their lives without contact with the outside world. Kuroo wouldn’t mind punching Suguru in the jaw.

Shouyou chatters on as they pick their way through the underbrush a few paces behind Lev. Kuroo’s more or less gotten the hang of watching his step and not tripping over everything, though the going isn’t easy at all, and he’s fairly convinced that they’re completely lost. The woods all look the same to him, lots of tall pine trees and ferns and murderous blackberry bushes. 

“Stop,” Lev says, loudly enough for them to hear from a few feet back. He frowns at a spot in the blackberry bush wall, approaching it and promptly sticking his entire forearm into it. Kuroo involuntarily flinches and Shouyou gasps beside him, but Lev’s arm just goes straight through without any resistance. He turns and grins at them. “Found it,” he announces. 

Walking through something that looks so solid and real is probably the strangest sensation Kuroo’s ever experienced, but he watches Lev and Shouyou do it first, and he follows cautiously, the feeling of stumbling into the bush earlier coming back to him vividly as he steps through. He resists screwing his eyes shut, and discovers a tunnel in the bushes, around seven or eight feet high and nearly brushing against his shoulders as he walks. It’s just a few steps until he emerges again, but it’s incredible how thick the bush wall is and the tunnel is dim, only the barest bits of sunlight filtering through overhead and the lights from the entrance and the exit. 

He emerges into a forest much the same as on the other side, though now there’s a trail from the entrance into the forest. Kuroo breathes out a sigh of relief, taking in the neat path and Shouyou and Lev waiting a few feet from the entrance. 

Shouyou’s practically buzzing, and Lev’s not much better, ranting on about something that sounds distinctly magical. Kuroo decides he probably doesn’t want to know. 

“Kuroo! You’re here! Let’s go!” Shouyou’s grin takes over his face as he takes off down the trail backwards, and Lev follows after him, Kuroo sighing and trudging after the two. He’s not sure when he became such an old man among 18-year-olds, but he feels a little like an exasperated parent. Or maybe an over-indulgent grandfather. 

He reminds himself that he’s the one delving into magical business he doesn’t have anything to do with to try and save his cat and catches up with Lev and Shouyou, who are still chatting excitedly. He mostly tunes out, gazing around at the tall, lush trees and ferns that line the trail, but snaps back to attention when he hears Lev mention the land guardian.

“Kenma said he’s just kind of shy, that’s why he keeps himself all hidden away,” Shouyou tells them, leaning in conspiratorially, “and that if his servant let him have his way he’d make everyone leave.” 

“That’s dumb!” Lev announces. “Everyone needs people, and even if the guardian guy doesn’t need anyone, the servant probably does! It’d suck to just hang out with one person all day, every day.” 

“Right?” Shouyou says. “I mean, the whole everyone-must-stay curse is kinda terrible, but at least he’s not trying to kick everyone out!” 

Kuroo’s not sure how magic works, but he doesn’t understand why the curse on the town couldn’t be a little less severe. Trapping everyone here forever seems more than a little extreme, and possibly the servant is actually insane for placing it. Kuroo hopes he never meets him.

Shouyou and Lev delve right back into town gossip after that, murmuring about someone called Yamaguchi that Kuroo’s far too preoccupied freaking out about the fact that he’s about to face a potentially very powerful land guardian to pay attention to. As they walk the trees seem to thin a bit, which Kuroo decides to take as a good sign, especially as the clouds become even darker and the thinning canopy provides better lighting. 

Suddenly, Shouyou stops walking in the middle of one of Lev’s stories, Kuroo almost smacking into him. He’d gotten lost in his thoughts imagining the land guardian being a giant dragon in a cave that would roast all of them and eat them for dinner for daring to encroach onto its territory. 

“Shouyou?” Lev asks, staring at the teen’s face with a worried look. “Hellooo?” 

Kuroo walks around Shouyou and blinks when he sees the boy’s face, expression blank and eyes staring, unseeing, straight ahead, body perfectly motionless. Kuroo’s about to reach forward to check his breathing when his eyes roll into the back of his head and a smile, somehow incredibly wrong, stretches across his face. Kuroo jerks back, chills running down his spine.

“Leave,” something says through Shouyou’s mouth in a deep, gravelly voice, and Kuroo takes off back down the trail, Lev hot at his heels.


	5. chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I haven't worked on this fic in almost a year and I've lost all hope of picking it back up again. I have a few chapters left over from when I worked on this a lot so I'm going to throw them out there. Fair warning, they're not edited.

Sugawara deals with a lot of shit on a daily basis.   
Right now, his convenience store in his gas station on his property is invaded by Lev and the newcomer he’s growing to hate more and more with each second as Lev explains why they’re here, covered in scratches and dirt and smelling like the part of the forest they definitely shouldn’t have gone to. Tooru had taken one look at them and announced that he forgot to return a library book and gotten out of the store, leaving Suga to deal with the mess, as usual.   
“-and that’s when we started running! And we stopped for a few minutes, and we were lost, but then we managed to get to the trail and then the car but Shouyou didn’t show up, so we left!” Lev finishes. Suga puts his head in his hands.   
“So Shouyou,” he grinds out, “is still up there, on the mountain, near the forest guardian’s house, after dark.”   
Lev pales a bit and Kuroo looks undeniably guilty, and Suga finds he can’t fault either of them for this, no matter how much he wants to. Psychics and possession do not mix, and Kuroo arrived yesterday-frankly, Suga’s surprised he’s not having a mental breakdown or 100 miles down the highway by now.   
“You should’ve seen him,” Kuroo begins, shivering. “It was so creepy, he-”   
“I’ve seen Shouyou be possessed before, thank you,” he cuts Kuroo off, not particularly enthusiastic to relive seeing Shouyou in that state for the first time. Kuroo shuts his mouth and doesn’t try to justify himself any more.   
“He’ll be fine,” Lev says weakly. “We’ve all spent nights in the woods alone before.”   
That confession doesn’t make Suga feel much better, even remembering his own (exciting, terrifying) nights in the forest as a teenager. “If he’s not home by dawn both of you are looking for him until he’s found.”  
Lev and Kuroo both nod at him solemnly before hurrying out of the shop, and Suga slumps against the counter with a long sigh. He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised at Lev and Shouyou for coming up with such a thoughtlessly dangerous plan, and he’s still not exactly certain why they’d been trying to get to the land guardian’s house in the first place, but he’s not entirely sure he wants to know. He’s familiar with the forest, far more than Lev or Shouyou or most of the residents of this town, and he knows it’s dangerous.   
He glances at the clock, letting out a groan at the thought of four more hours on shift. They’d started allowing Tadashi to pick up the night shift after he’d begged and begged, though Suga knows that balancing that kind of work schedule with school can’t be good for him, so he’ll be arriving later to relieve Suga (and Oikawa, if he ever comes back), but he still has hours to kill, and he’s worried out of his mind about Shouyou.   
He busies himself with tidying up the already-neat shelves and organizing a display of the magazines that had arrived earlier that day, flipping through the news magazine in search of something worth reading about. He’s always been far too enamored with the outside world, burying himself the current events and history of the world and, when he was younger, wishing he could break down those borders and see it all for himself.   
Before he can let his thoughts trail off into daydreaming about places he’ll never go and things he’ll never do, the bell above the door jingles and Yuutarou steps into the shop, Akira trailing behind him. It’s later than they usually come in, and Suga swears Akira looks relieved when his eyes sweep the shop and don’t find Tooru. His mentor always tries to get him to do things, which is not Akira’s forte.   
“Hi, Suga!” Yuutarou greets cheerfully, and Suga shoots him the best smile he can muster. “Is Tadashi here?”   
“Not for a few more hours,” Suga responds pitifully. “Did you need him?”   
“Hm, not really,” Yuutarou shrugs, and Suga’s too tired to press him about it. “Just a school project. You haven’t seen Shouyou around either?”   
Suga groans and lets his head fall forward to smack against the counter. “He went up to the land guardian’s house with the newcomer and Lev, of all people, and they just swung by to tell me he got possessed and they left him there,” he whines into the plastic, which smells like the absolutely disgusting cleaner Tooru bought the other day.   
When he lifts his head Akira’s looking at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly unimpressed, but Yuutarou’s eyes are huge. The two tend to avoid Shouyou for reasons Suga doesn’t completely understand, but he’s fairly certain it has something to do with Shouyou’s knack for getting himself possessed. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Akira says dryly.   
“Idiot,” Yuutarou mutters in agreement. 

Suga allows his head to thunk back down onto the counter, because today of all days he can’t deal with the drama that plagues the apprentices. One day, he thinks, they’re going to be like us, getting together and drinking wine and bickering about hair products. The thought lifts his mood somewhat.   
Akira picks out a bottle of soda and a bag of chips after wandering about the store for a bit while Yuutarou whines to Suga about his schoolwork. Yuutarou pays, like he always does, and the two slink out of the store after Suga reprimands them (again, he thinks with a bitterly tired sigh) about their obligations as apprentices, which includes more than dropping by the shop when they know Tooru isn’t there and buying junk food. Tadashi may overwork himself, but at least he shows up.   
The light drizzle that had persisted since dusk is a full-on downpour by the time Tooru drags himself back into the store, looking like a drowned rat and whining incessantly about his hair. He tracks water and mud through the shop, which Suga makes him clean up, but the night is always quiet at the store and soon they settle in until Tadashi arrives, playing music out of a portable speaker just quiet enough to still hear the rain and chatting off and on, sitting on the floor behind the counter.  
“I wish there was some spell to help Shouyou,” Toory grumbles, popping an m&m into his mouth. “Possession cannot be as fun as he makes it out to be.”  
Suga hums, munching on some spicy chips. Shouyou has always been shockingly relaxed about having his body overtaken by spirits on a regular basis, brushing it off as a kind of weird feeling that he didn’t really mind as long as it’s been happening, since he was 10. Suga can’t imagine it. Handing over control to his store had been a challenge at first; handing over the keys to his own body is unimaginable.   
“Yuutarou and Tadashi have been acting kind of weird lately,” Tooru adds. “If I knew having apprentices was this much trouble I never would have agreed to it.”   
Suga lets out a snort. “We both know how terrible we were as apprentices,” he shoots back, and Tooru grins. “Though we were the only ones.”   
“This class is so big,” Tooru grumbles in agreement. “And they’ve got nearly all their bases covered. Can’t help feeling bad for Lev, Kenma never tries to teach him anything.”   
“Better than you and your dark magic lessons,” Suga retorts, earning him a glare.   
“Like you don’t teach Yuutarou weird dark nymph magic.”   
“That’s not dark, that’s our heritage!” Suga exclaims, feigning offense.   
“Dark heritage,” Tooru mutters, and Suga hits him upside the head with the chip bag.   
They banter through the quiet shift until Tadashi arrives, looking as messy and sleep deprived as usual. Suga frowns at the bruise that discolors one side of his face but lets it go when Tadashi catches his gaze and looks away in embarrassment. Not my business, Suga tells himself furiously. It might be his business that Tadashi’s backpack, which is huge and usually hangs loose even with all of Tadashi’s school things in it, seems to be bursting, but Tooru hurries him out before Suga can ask.   
“Have a good shift!” Suga calls as he and Tooru make their way out of the store.   
“Good night!” Tadashi calls back tiredly, and Suga hopes he falls asleep at the counter. No one ever comes during the night shift in their quiet town, and Tadashi always looks like he’s ascended to another plane from exhaustion. Suga absentmindedly wonders what the boy looks like without eye bags digging into his face as he climbs into the driver’s seat of his car.   
Oikawa pops in some pop cd Watari brought him last month and sings along passionately as they make the short drive to their house.   
It’s dark and raining and the town is blurred, and as they drive towards the other end of town Suga can almost imagine they can keep going past the welcome sign he can’t even see and into the world.   
The image is ruined as he turns up the last street and stops at their house a bit up the hill, a small, cozy place with a coat of blue paint and an actual white picket fence out front. He and Tooru aren’t married but they might as well be, with the store and the car and the house. Somewhere along the line questionable magical practices and mischief had turned into shopkeeping and bottles of wine with a movie at night. Suga’s not sure if he’s glad to be out of that period in his life or if he misses it and the thrill of he and Tooru’s magic mixing together and performing all kinds of impossible feats, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as they summon or charm or curse something they shouldn’t be messing with.   
They hurry through the rain and fall through the front door into the house, cold and dripping. With a flick of his fingers a fire lights in the fireplace and Suga strips off his jacket and rushes over to it, positioning himself as close as he possibly can without setting himself on fire.   
“You’re welcome,” Tooru singsongs, but Suga pays him no mind as he holds his hand over the flames contentedly, letting the warmth seep into his bones. It’s been particularly cold lately.   
The weather spirits must be in a particularly contrary mood lately, because the weather has been all over the place: sunshine one day, rain the next, hail three times last week, and a foot of snow two weeks ago that was melted and replaced by nearly warm temperatures the next day. It’s getting a bit tiring, but the two local weather spirits are constantly bickering and the town sometimes suffers for it. It can’t help that they’ve been trapped in the town together for so long. Suga’s lifespan may be longer than that of the average human, but weather spirits are a whole different story.   
Tooru comes back from his room in pajamas and with all of his blankets, a number Suga’s long lost track of. Suga accepts them gratefully and proceeds to wrap them around Tooru and himself as his friend settles himself in next to Suga in front of the fire, and they sit there for a while, staring at the fire and listening to the crackling of the fire against the gentle, constant sound of the rain pounding against the roof.   
“I should go visit our favorite weather spirits soon,” Suga says, pausing to yawn, “looks like they need some marriage counselling. Again.”   
Tooru snorts, sticking a hand out of the blanket pile and feeding the fire, which had started to burn low. “I won’t say no to more stable weather,” he agrees, “but I’m more worried about Tadashi than those two. He comes to work every day looking a few inches closer to death’s door.”   
Suga hums in agreement. It’s a small town, and rumors fly, but he’s not entirely certain what Tadashi’s deal is, other than he’s talented with magic, he’s eager to learn, and he seems intent on spending every waking minute, which from what Suga’s seen is 24 hours a day, in school, at the shop, or at the library. He’s not actually Tadashi’s mentor, Oikawa’s training Akira and Tadashi and he’s training Yuutarou, but since they share the shop and most of their time he feels like they’re as much, if not more, his apprentices, and he worries about Tadashi’s health and Akira’s antisocial tendencies as much as Tooru does. Maybe it’s good that his actual apprentice is the one who causes the least headaches out of the whole year, even if he does have the habit of picking bad battles to put himself in the middle of.   
Suga doesn’t notice he’s drifting off until his phone rings and jerks him out of it, glancing over at Tooru, who’s fast asleep and doesn’t even stir at the sound. Suga carefully disentangles himself from the blanket nest and grabs his phone, squinting at the caller ID as he wanders into the kitchen.   
“Tadashi?” he asks tiredly, wondering what reason Tadashi could possibly have for calling him so late. He’d hoped the kid would be asleep by now.   
“Suga!” the boy’s voice sounds strained, the distinct note of fear in it waking Suga up more than any cup of coffee. “I tried calling Tooru but he didn’t pick up, even though I called like four time, I’m sorry I didn’t know what to do I-”   
“Tadashi,” Suga cuts him off firmly, because he knows Tadashi, and this will just dissolve into incoherent babbling if he doesn’t set him on track. “What happened?”   
The line is silent for a moment. “I fucked up,” Tadashi says quietly into the receiver, fear and what sound like tears distorting his voice. “Please, I’m sorry, please come.”   
Suga wakes Tooru up after assuring Tadashi they’ll be there as soon as possible, skipping the usual steps and dumping some cold water on him after dragging him out of the covers. Sometimes, his ability to sleep through anything is a blessing, but more often it’s a curse.   
Suga explains the phone call as he shoves Tooru’s shoes at him and starts lacing up his own. “What the hell,” Tooru murmurs to himself.   
Suga grabs both their coats and practically shoves Tooru out the door and into the car, gunning it down the road and trusting that no cars will be out at this time of night. There never are, but usually he drives more safely on principle. Tonight, he just presses his foot against the gas pedal and thanks the weather spirits, who seemed to have calmed for now and are giving the torrential rain a rest. Tooru is silent as Suga drives, but he’s alert, eyes sharp and calculating as they rush past town.   
There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the gas station or the store when they pull up, but when they step out of the car the smell of dark magic hits them both, acrid and heavy in the air. A thousand situations that might have led up to this race through Suga;s head as he and Tooru sprint into the shop, and one glance at Tooru before they enter tells him that his friend is thinking the same thing.   
They know this smell, and it brings back vivid memories from apprenticeship and younger years, things they shouldn’t have even known about, things that Tadashi most certainly does know about because Tooru can’t keep his mouth shut.   
It takes a moment for Suga to find Tadashi when they enter the shop, Tooru finally spotting him sitting pressed into a corner, staring at the door to the back room behind the counter, which is ajar. The dark magic stench seems to be coming from there, but Suga follows Tooru over to Tadashi before storming in there to deal with whatever mess he’s managed to get himself into. He needs at least some kind of explanation.   
He expected this kind of idiotic dabbling from Shouyou and Lev, not Tadashi. Tadashi had always been a good kid.   
The boy finally seems to notice them when Tooru cautiously crouches in front of him, eyes snapping to meet Tooru’s, wide and full of fear. He’s shaking, and underneath the harsh lighting of the store his tanned skin looks sickly and his cheekbones stand out from his face more than they usually do. Tooru puts a hand on his shoulder. Suga crouches next to him.   
“Tadashi? Are you alright?” Tooru asks, voice surprisingly even. Tadashi shakes his head after a moment, eyes darting all over the place and not meeting Suga’s or Tooru’s. He’s methodically cracking his knuckles one by one.   
“I fucked up,” he mumbles weakly. “Shit, fuck, I-” he buries his head between his knees, shaking and breathing erratically, and Tooru looks over at Suga helplessly.   
“Go,” Suga whispers. “I’ll deal with Tadashi.”  
Tooru casts one more glance at Tadashi, but whatever he’s done seems to be magical, and Tooru’s the witch. Her reluctantly rises and heads off towards the door to the storage room, looking equal parts disgusted, concerned, and curious. It’s a familiar expression.   
Suga rubs Tadashi’s back and walks him through breathing exercises until he calms down, trying not to worry about the lack of anything from the storage room as Tadashi slowly uncurls from the ball he’d wrapped himself into and his breathing becomes more regular. “Tadashi,” Suga tries to sound nonthreatening. “Tell me what happened.”   
He half-expects the kid to have another panic attack, but he just takes a shaky breath and nods. His skin looks sickly and green and his eyes huge and puffy, and Suga can’t help worrying about him (again) beneath his own panic.   
“I was trying to-summon a familiar, I heard they make magic and stuff easier, and they’re, supportive and shit?” he starts to explain, voice high and reedy. “And I found a spell for a really powerful one, and I tried it, but I think something went wrong and…” his breathing starts to speed up again and Suga rubs soothing circles into his back, piecing together the rest of the story in his mind. “I think I summoned a demon,” Tadashi finishes.   
Suga’s not really sure what to say to that, especially since Tooru hasn’t emerged yet from the storage room. He trusts Tadashi’s diligence with doing magic correctly enough to assume the demon is confined, and he trusts Tooru’s magical ability and common sense enough to keep it that way.   
The demon emerges before Tooru does, but apparently it’s settled, because all Suga gets a glimpse of is a tall, blond, surprisingly young man racing from the storage room door out the front door and into the night. Tadashi stares after him, shellshocked, and Suga can’t process enough to help him because holy shit that was a demon and that demon is now loose on the world and Tadashi was planning on a familiar not a demon there definitely weren’t enough protection wards in his summoning circle and now the apocalypse is coming.   
Tooru emerges a moment later, looking extremely smug and holding up a Siren’s Call Bakery pastry wrapper triumphantly. Tadashi and Suga stare at him blankly.   
“Oh, stop giving me that,” Tooru pouts. “I added some protection clauses to your contract which, by the way Tadashi, was excellent, and I fed him this so he’s settled and can’t get out of town!” He grins smugly, and Suga slumps with relief.   
“B-but he is a demon,” Tadashi clarifies, looking absolutely terrified about the answer.   
“Oh yes!” Tooru replies, looking far too excited about that fact. “A real, live demon! I want to be mad but I cannot believe you actually did that!”   
“I didn’t want a demon !” Tadashi half-wails. “How do I get rid of it? Him? I don’t care!”   
Tooru blinks at him. “Get rid of him? Tadashi, your contract pretty much makes him your servant!”  
Tadashi stares blankly at Tooru, who looks like it’s Christmas, Halloween, his birthday, and the day the aliens descend from the heavens all in one. Suga feels very out of the loop.   
“Tadashi, what exactly were you trying to summon?” Suga asks, trying to sound patient and forgiving. He’s not sure how it comes out, but Tadashi slumps further down against the wall. “A familiar,” he replies. “A powerful one, and I had to substitute some of the ingredients so no one would get suspicious or anything cause this magic is way above my level, I know, and I did my best to match them up but I must have fucked up somewhere…” he trails off. “What the fuck do I do?”   
Suga sighs. The summoning process is a tried and tested one, though it requires meticulous planning and set-up and no small amount of magical ability. He’s never heard of anyone summoning a demon by using the wrong ingredients, and he desperately wants a good look at that summoning circle.   
Tooru strides over and wraps an arm around Tadashi’s shoulders. “You’re going to be fine,” he coos, shooting Suga a pointed look over his shoulder. “Go home, we’ll close up the shop for tonight. We’ll clean up everything from the ritual and we’ll have a nice long chat about it tomorrow, alright?”   
There’s a heavy pause, until Tadashi shakily nods, though he doesn’t seem any more stable as he pushes himself upright.   
“Okay,” he agrees. “Okay.”   
“If he doesn’t return, we’ll go find the demon tomorrow too,” Suga reassures him, though he wants to get his hands on the thing tonight. He’s not sure what this demon’s intentions are, exactly, but if the contract is as good as Tooru seems to think it should protect them to a certain degree.  
Suga offers to drive Tadashi home but he refuses, not that he’s ever let either of them drive him home as long as they’ve known him, and Suga watches him go with a sigh. “When this whole demon thing is sorted out we need to figure out some way to help that boy,” Suga tells Tooru as he reenters the store, and Tooru nods vigorously.   
“Yes, absolutely, but Suga,” Tooru’s eyes are practically glowing. He holds out a thick, worn notebook that Suga recognizes immediately, and he can feel himself freeze.   
“He figured out our circle, that’s how he summoned the thing,” Tooru’s voice is hushed but full of excitement. Suga stares at him, trying to process what he’s saying.   
The demon summoning circles they’d created had been months and months of work, of trial and error, of almost dying. He knew Tooru kept all of the notebooks, knows the one he’s looking at is the most recent one. He takes it into his hands gingerly and flips to the last page they’d filled out, to the circle that had nearly killed them both and gotten them into a lot of trouble. They’d had to combine their magic to perform it, had puzzled over tomes and theories for months.   
And Tadashi had just picked it up and performed it. He doesn’t want to know how long Tooru’s apprentice has been planning this.   
“You didn’t know about this, did you?” he asks, trying to keep his voice level. Tooru, to his relief, shakes his head.   
“Of course not! I don’t want to kill the kid, Jesus,” Tooru pouts. “From what I can tell he thought it was actually a familiar spell, and changed it to make it more bonding, like a familiar spell would be.”   
Suga can feel his eyes widen, mind racing with possibilities and how that’s even possible and he’s half furious with Tadashi, half wanting to give him a medal.   
Tooru leads him into the storage room, flicking on the light. Suga’s eyes widen, taking in the meticulously neat circle, snuffed out candles and broken jars of god knows what and a pile of bones and a lot of symbols placed at intervals around it. Suga walks around it slowly, taking in the symbols and how they work together, the functions of each ingredient, noting the changes Tadashi must have made to their original plan.   
“Do you have the notebook?” Suga asks absently, looking up at Tooru, who looks around frantically before snatching it from one of the shelves Tadashi had shoved to the side of the room, tossing it to Suga.   
He flips through it and quickly finds the circle Tadashi must have used, the last one in the notebook. They’d been so sure it would work, but now, seeing what Tadashi’s done with it, how he’s improved it, he’s glad it hadn’t, not really. He hadn’t gotten a good look at Tadashi’s demon, but it had looked more or less like a human.   
“So it’s bound to serve him,” Suga muses, bending down to examine the symbols. “Pretty basic familiar binding spells, but mixed with the rest of this…”   
“He’s a genius,” Tooru cuts him off, sounding equal parts proud and envious. “Maybe accidentally, but he’s a genius.”   
They stay for a little more, Suga taking pictures of the circle from every angle he possibly can (the shelf he climbs up onto almost tips over and ruins everything, but it doesn’t) before they shove everything into garbage bags and wash away the circle until all that’s left is a suspiciously clean floor, the smell of cleaning chemicals mixing with the bad magic smell.   
“I hope that doesn’t drive away any customers,” Tooru huffs, untying the bandana he’d wrapped around his hair.   
Suga hums, examining the room to make sure they haven’t left anything behind before they flick off the light and shut the door to the storage room behind them. Tooru lets out a long groan and hoists himself onto the counter, twisting to lie down on it.   
“Just leave me here to sleep,” he whines. “That’s all I want.”   
Suga snorts, sliding down to sit with his back to the counter. “You’re gonna have to clean that in the morning,” he tells Tooru over a yawn. It’s much later than he thought when he chances a look up at the clock hanging on the wall.   
“Please tell me we’re not on morning shift tomorrow.”   
“Nope,” Tooru replies sleepily. “Shirabu.”   
“Oh thank god,” Suga replies. “Please, let’s go.”   
Tooru, with a considerable amount of whining, finally gets down from the counter after Suga nearly shoves him off, and he writes a note to Shirabu to keep out of the storage room (“just in case! I promise everything’s safe!”). They wearily trudge to the car, Suga slipping defeatedly into the driver’s seat.   
Once they get home after a silent drive that seemed to drag on for ages Tooru brings out the notebook, lounging across the couch with all the grace of a deer on ice. Suga decides to ignore him for the time being and makes them tea, mixing in heaping spoonfuls of honey and carrying them carefully to the living room and sitting in the armchair across from Tooru.   
He’s staring at the last page of the notebook, eyes tracing over the notes and symbols on the neatly drawn circle like he’s trying to solve some kind of puzzle.   
“We could try again,” he says, nearly a whisper, and Suga freezes with his mug halfway up to his lips.   
“No.”   
Tooru turns to him, eyebrows drawn down into a frown. “Why? Tadashi did it, Tooru, he summoned a demon!”   
“Because the last time we tried this, two people died!” Suga blurts out before he can hold back the words. Now they’re out, he can’t seem to stop. “And we almost did! All for some science experiment, Tooru, it’s not worth it.”   
There’s a heavy silence between them, and when Suga manages to meet Tooru’s eyes they’re wide and shocked. “Oh,” he replies.   
Suga can’t find it within himself to apologize and instead sinks further into the armchair, taking a long sip of his tea. They haven’t talked about what happened the night they tried to do exactly what Tadashi had done, not really. They’d hidden the notebooks and thrown away the evidence and moved on. Now, more than ever, he wishes they hadn’t just brushed over it.   
“It’s over,” Suga says, trying to convince himself along with Tooru. “It should’ve been over years ago, but now it really is. It succeeded. Let’s assume that everything works out and that demon doesn’t find away to fuck everything up.   
If this research gets out there, if anyone were to make a mistake performing this, can you imagine how bad that would be?”   
Tooru’s silent for a moment, and Suga can tell he’s won this round. Quietly, he flicks his fingers to make a fire in the hearth again, and Suga sighs, standing and making his way to curl up in the blankets again with his tea. Tooru joins him after a long moment, wiggling into the blanket nest and staring pensively at the notebook.   
The original color of it has been nearly completely worn away, though Suga’s fairly sure that at some point it was red, and most of the pages are ripped out or half hanging out of it or both. It’s so unassuming and familiar, he can almost pretend it’s an old school notebook, full of equations and notes he doesn’t remember anything about and absent doodles. But it’s not.   
Tooru turns towards the fire, and in one deft movement he tosses the notebook into the flames. Suga stares at it as it slowly begins to burn, pages catching flame and quickly melting away. It’s a relief, but beneath it all there’s a bit of regret, a voice in the back of his head reminding him that the notebook that’s slowly being reduced to ashes is full of groundbreaking magical research.   
Tooru presses into his side and they stay there for a while, watching the fire and sipping at their tea. Suga can hear the beginnings of rain patter against their roof again, and he smiles softly, mind wandering from the notebook to Semi and Tendou. He should visit them tomorrow, convince them to stabilize the weather, have a nice chat. Tadashi needs help, but Suga can’t imagine trying when his thoughts are jumbled with magical theory and demons and past endeavours into dark magic that he’s rather not think about.   
Just before he falls asleep, Suga catches a glimpse of the metal spiral of the notebook, all malformed and covered in the ashes of the fire, the only part left of what had been. He draws in a breath and blows gently on the fire, dousing it before drifting off on Tooru’s shoulder.


	6. chapter 6

Kuroo wakes up in the morning with what feels like an extremely painful hangover.  
His head is pounding, he desperately needs water, and scratches all over his body prickle and sting as he shifts. His muscles feel sore too. Lady prods at his face with her nose and he releases a long groan, squinting at the drawn curtains to the window, trying to discern the time.   
Yesterday’s events trickle into his head as he slowly wakes up, and he stares at the ceiling for a while, putting his thoughts into order. He remembers driving to the gas station when he saw Kenma and Keiji’s lights off last night, remembers spilling everything to Suga with Lev, remembers driving the kid home and crashing into his bed.   
He definitely does not remember seeing Shouyou after the poor kid got possessed, and that gets him out of bed and into the shower before he can think of much else.   
When he checks his phone it’s almost 10:30am, later than he’d hoped but not too late, and he jogs out of his room and into the morning air, much warmer and less foggy than his early morning yesterday. He finds that he misses the uncomfortable prickle of the foggy air, though when he thinks of the chill last night as he and Lev made their way down the mountain in the dark the idea loses most of it’s appeal.   
The office is open when he reaches it and he pulls the door open to find Kenma at the desk, hunched over the gaming device just like he had been when Kuroo had arrived.   
He glances up, and his eyebrows immediately turn down into a scowl.   
Shit, Kuroo thinks.   
“What you did last night was stupid,” he leads with, something about the tone and the bluntness of his words cutting through Kuroo better than any shouting. He can feel himself physically deflate. “Keiji did tell you not to go traipsing around in the woods. Especially when it’s dark, or getting dark, or anywhere near a time of day that remotely resembles dark.”   
“I know,” Kuroo mumbles, feeling remarkably like a scolded child. “But i wanted to find a way out, and Shouyou said-”   
“I’m quite aware of what Shouyou probably told you,” Kenma cuts him off icily. “I’m telling you right now that if Shouyou ever tries to impose a plan on you that goes against something I, or Keiji, or Suga, hell, even Tooru, has told you, don’t just follow him. And especially not with that idiot Lev.”   
“Maybe he’d be less of an idiot if you trained him,” Kuroo replies in a last-ditch effort to get the attention off of him, recalling what Lev had complained to him about last night. Kenma’s face twists into a very dramatic scowl.   
“Probably not,” he replies. “Anyway, now you know, so if there’s ever a next time I’ll kick your ass.”   
Nothing about his tone suggests that he’s joking, and the way he looks at Kuroo makes him want to sink into a puddle on the floor, so he quickly nods and scrambles for a subject change with all of his very misplaced brain power.   
“Is Shouyou okay?” he asks, remembering the reason he’s managed to get out of bed in the first place. He feels more than a little responsible about what happened up on the mountain.   
Kenma sighs and nods, turning back to their gaming console. “He’s fine. Banged up, but not any more than you or Lev, I guess. Tanaka and Noya dropped him off at home last night.”

Kuroo breathes out a sigh of relief. “Who’re Tanaka and Noya?” he asks, trying to mask how the scratches and sore muscles ache once he’s not worrying half to death over someone else.   
“A centaur and a faun,” Kenma tells him absently. “They’re guards for the land guardian too, but they’re alright. I’m assuming Lev told you I’m a psychic?”   
Kuroo blinks at the blunt way Kenma puts things, though he shouldn’t be surprised; none of his interactions with the guy have suggested anything else. “Er, yes. Sorry.”   
Kenma sighs, a long, pained one that Kuroo’s starting to suspect somes with any mention of the name Lev. “It’s not your fault, he just can’t keep his mouth shut. For the record, Keiji’s a medium, like Shouyou without the possession.”   
The memory of Shouyou’s wide smile and rolled-back eyes comes to him and he shudders. Kenma eyes him with something bordering on sympathy, though it could just be another variation on kind of bored. Kuroo hasn’t quite gotten the hang of reading him or Keiji yet.   
“That’s nice,” Kuroo manages to reply weakly, and Kenma crooks an eyebrow at him. “Almost no one in this town is nonmagical,” he says flatly, “and a good amount of us aren’t human. You’re going to have to get used to it if you plan to stay.”   
Kuroo nods mutely. He’s not entirely sure if the idea of magical powers and not human beings will ever become normal in his mind, but he’s fairly sure he can do better than he has been about dealing with it.   
He goes back to his room and lies down on the bed, letting Lady curl up onto his chest and forming a life plan of “sleep forever” in his mind. Everything hurts and he’s still exhausted from being up so late last night, and he falls asleep before he can think better of it, wrapping himself in the blankets and drifting off to the sound of Lady purring.   
He’s woken by the shrill ringing of his phone, cutting into some pleasant dream about snow and fauns, and he blearily hits the green button before he can check the caller ID or think better of it.   
“Hullo?” he says into the phone.   
“Kuroo, I’m glad I caught you,” Yaku’s brisk voice cuts into Kuroo’s foggy brain and he restrains a pained groan. “Bokuto called me yesterday yelling that you almost got kidnapped.”   
That wakes Kuroo up. “I did not!” he insists, violently cursing Bokuto’s vain attempts to get him and Yaku to be friends again. “Bokuto’s just overreacting, like usual.”   
Yaku sighs into the phone and sits up, inadvertently moving Lady, who meows at him in annoyance. The alarm clock reads past noon, and Kuroo’s stomach grumbles. It occurs to him, a little belatedly, that he hasn’t had anything to eat since lunch yesterday.“Do not get yourself murdered,” Yaku mutters, and then the line goes dead.  
Kuroo restrains the urge to toss his phone across the room and instead tosses it somewhat angrily onto the bed. He’s sitting up now, legs hanging off the side of the bed, and by now the urge to eat something and maybe see if Shouyou and Lev are ok overrides his need to sleep for the next 10 years of his life. Lady comes up behind him and mewls pitifully, and he remembers that it’s been far too long since he’s fed her either.   
“Sorry, girl,” he murmurs, turning to stroke her apologetically. Let’s go get you some cat food and me some people food. Sound okay?”   
She meows again, which he takes for a yes, so he gets himself up and stuffs on a pair of shoes, dragging Lady out with him when he leaves the room. It’s not raining, which puts Kuroo in a better mood, the clouds light and just barely obscuring the sun. The ground is still wet from last night but everything smells like rain, all scrubbed clean and fresh, and he breathes it in happily before walking down to the office.   
Kenma is gone, replaced by Keiji, who gives him a reproachful look as he walks in, though Kuroo can’t tell if it’s because of last night or Lady, who’s curled up contentedly in his arms.   
“Kenma already chewed you out?” Keiji sighs, and Kuroo nods.   
“Yeah, I just wanted to ask if there’s anywhere to buy cat food here? Lady here’s on a diet and I don’t want to ruin that,” he chuckles.  
Keiji glances at Lady, mouth quirking upwards in an almost-smile. “She is pretty fat, isn’t she,” he comments lightly.   
Kuroo clutches his cat to his chest, feigning offense. “Excuse me? She is perfect, beautiful woman, thank you very much.”   
Keiji stares at him blankly until Kuroo relaxes, shooting him a grin. “Yeah, I can’t say no to her,” he admits. “I’ve been trying to put her on a diet for about a year.”   
Keiji snorts, which Kuroo counts as a point in his favor (he made the guy almost smile and almost laugh in the span of one conversation, he’s got to be inching closer to his good books) and gives him directions to the local pet store and veterinarian's office, with the advice to be patient with the vet, whatever that means.   
“He doesn’t get very many customers, just let him fawn over her,” Keiji tells him sagely, and Kuroo nods back and thanks him before leaving the office, paper with vague directions and a nearly-asleep lady in hand.   
It’s fairly close so Kuroo decides to walk, allowing Lady to walk alongside him. She doesn’t get to do it much in Tokyo, too many busy streets and crowds of people and stray dogs and cats to be safe, but when he visits his parents in the suburbs he sometimes brings her along and she likes to wander around outside with him. She’s remarkably loyal, he thinks with a soft smile as he glances down at her trotting alongside him, more like a dog in that sense than a cat.   
He’s paused by a few people on the walk up to pet Lady, who basks in the attention like a star, and he strikes up a conversation with a tall brunette who introduces himself as Wakatoshi.   
He’s pretty stoic and Kuroo’s jokes seem to bounce right off of him, but he absolutely loves Lady and she seems alright with him, so that puts him solidly into Kuroo’s good books. The rest are mostly small children and apologetic parents.   
By the time he reaches the vet/pet store, a good half an hour later, he’s feeling more upbeat than he has in days despite the ache in his ankle. The store is small and designed almost like a house, with a second story that might be the vet’s office or perhaps where someone lives, and it’s made of wood painted a cheery light blue. The door jingles as he walks in, taking in neat rows of pet food and toys and fish tanks bubbling over on one wall.   
He seems to be the only one there besides a clerk about Shouyou and Lev’s age with dark hair who doesn’t bother to greet him, eyes flicking up from whatever book he’s reading for a second or two before returning to it.   
Kuroo wanders through the store with Lady in his arms and picks up some food for her and a little catnip, bringing it up to the counter to check out. The clerk mutters a half-hearted greeting and only eyes his cat warily as he scans the items. Kuroo peeks at the book he’s reading and resists the urge to turn it towards him and study it when he spots odd symbols next to long paragraphs of text, avoiding the clerk’s glare as he shifts the book closer towards himself.   
“Do you want to see the vet?” the boy mumbles, and Kuroo remembers that he’d been told the vet would be happy to see the cat, so he nods once and lets him lead through a door in the side of the shop into a waiting room with a loud sigh.   
“There’s a guy with a cat,” the clerk calls out, shrugging to Kuroo when there’s no immediate response and turning to head back into the shop. Unsure of what to do Kuroo hangs back, and a moment later a stocky man with oddly colored hair emerges out of another door, blinking in confusion.   
“Wha-oh,” he stops short when his eyes land on the cat, and despite his rugged, somewhat intimidating appearance it’s hard to take him seriously when his eyes absolutely melt at the sight of Lady.   
“Hi,” Kuroo says awkwardly. “I’m Kuroo, I just got here…”   
“Kyoutani,” the man mumbles absently, eyes still trained on Lady.   
“This is Lady,” Kuroo introduces her, stooping down to let her onto the floor. Kyoutani crouches down and lets her sniff his hand. Kuroo wonders absently when this trip turned into Lady’s social event calendar. Maybe he should get her to find him a rebound while she’s at it.  
“Does she need anything?” Kyoutani asks, stroking her back absently. Kuroo shakes his head.  
“Nah, I’m just here to grab some food for her,” he replies, hefting up the food he’d picked up earlier. Kyoutani nods with a faint smile.   
He seems to be enamored with Lady but not very talkative, though his intimidating demeanor falls away as he showers Lady with love. It’s kind of endearing how quickly everyone warms up to Lady, who’s usually more than a little standoffish with strangers, and how much she’s basking in the attention.   
At least someone’s finding the good in this situation.   
Before Kuroo can resort to reading the colorful pet health reminders on the walls the door bursts open and both Lady and Kyoutani jump, the former hissing and bristling at the newcomer, a tall, young guy with fluffy hair and a long, thick, almost purely white snake draped across his shoulders. The thing raises it’s head and flickers his tongue at Kuroo in a gesture eerily similar to it’s owners sweeping gaze.   
“Oh, it’s you,” Kyoutani comments gruffly, and snake guy glares at him.   
“When are you going to teach yourself some manners?” he snaps back, turning huffily to Kuroo. “Yahaba Shigeru, and you are?”   
“Kuroo Tetsurou,” he replies nervously, trying to lift his eyes from the twisting snake long enough to meet Yahaba’s. It’s a losing battle.   
Luckily Yahaba turns back to Kyoutani, who’s gotten up from his crouched position on the floor and is pinning Yahaba with a murderous glare, which seems to be doing absolutely nothing to deter Yahaba. “Nagami hasn’t been eating,” he announces, and Kyoutani’s expression softens marginally when his eyes travel downwards to the snake. Kuroo shifts as far away as he can from it, stooping to pick up Lady from her position cowering against the far wall.   
“I’ll just be going,” he announces, trying not to flinch when Yahaba turns to him.   
“Oh, you’re from outside, right?” he doesn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “Our delivery guy from Portland should be coming in soon, wait for me and I’ll take you over to meet him.”   
“Okay,” Kuroo replies weakly, trying to mask how reluctant he is to go anywhere with that man and his evil snake.

He goes back into the main shop in an attempt to prepare himself to interact with that man again and to leave him and Kyoutani to their bickering. The clerk is still absently reading behind the counter, not sparing him a glance, and Kuroo buries his face in Lady’s fur, considering the consequences of just bolting. He wonders if Yahaba’s another psychic and would intercept him and let his snake eat Kuroo alive.   
I am an adult and I will not run from a perfectly nice man and his snake, he chants to himself.   
He hears some raised voices from behind the door as he waits before Yahaba opens the door with a sunny smile, the snake-Nagami?-now cradled lovingly in his arms, much like Lady is now, though the snake isn’t puffed up and hissing. It regards Lady calmly, twisting it’s thick body around one of Yahaba’s hands.   
“Ready to go?” Yahaba asks him cheerfully.   
The weather is bordering on warm as they step outside, a pleasant surprise after yesterday’s cold, stormy weather. Yahaba smiles absently up at the sky, Nagami slimbing higher on top of him, presumably for better access to the sunlight, and he just lets it.   
“Semi and Tendou must be getting along,” he hums happily, and Kuroo quirks an eyebrow at him. “The weather spirits here. They argue a lot, so the weather gets pretty weird.” “I thought that was just the weather here.”   
Yahaba laughs. “That too, I suppose they reflect how it is here.”   
They walk in comfortable silence for a bit, Yahaba leading him down and towards the main strip of shops. Some people are out and about and a few give him odd looks, but Kuroo finds that he’s become used to being the strange newcomer. He’s a little miffed that everyone seems to find him much stranger than the large snake coiled around Yahaba’s shoulders, but he suspects it might be a common theme, so he tries not to feel too affronted.   
Once they arrive at the main strip of shops Kuroo spots the semi parked out in front of the ice cream shop, a small man with a shaved head standing in front chatting with a tall man with white hair built like a brick wall.   
“Shinji!” Yahaba calls down the street, and the shorter man whips around and immediately breaks out into a huge grin.   
“Shigeru! Nagami!” the other cries, jogging down the street towards them and stopping just in front of Yahaba, reaching up a bit to pet the snake delightedly. “It’s so good to see ya! I have your snake food and also some books I saw I think you’ll like, and the chocolate, and the earrings!”   
He doesn’t seem to notice Kuroo as he says all of this in one breath, eyes darting between Nagami and Yahaba as he continues to pet the snake. Kuroo wonders if people in this town have fear or if curses have numbed all of them to the prospect of a long, painful death by snakebite.   
“Oh! Who are you? I’m Watari Shinji, the delivery guy!” he turns to Kuroo. “You’re new here! Where are you from?”   
“Kuroo Tetsurou,” he introduces himself with a smile to match the one that’s stayed on Shinji’s face as long as he’s seen him. “I’m from Tokyo.”   
“Whoa, so cool!” Watari exclaims, and Kuroo notes somewhat uneasily that he’s still absently running his hand along the snake’s body, which has begun coiling itself around the shorter’s hand. His eyes light up when he spies Lady. “Oh! Who’s this?”

Kuroo stoops down and picks up Lady, holding her out gently for Shinji to fawn over. “This is Lady!”   
“New celebrity of Elsewhere,” Yahaba snorts.   
“She’s beautiful!” Watari announces, petting her with at least as much enthusiasm as Kyoutani had.   
They stand and make small talk for a bit, Kuroo sheepishly explaining his situation to Yahaba and Shinji, glad to be met with understanding for once.   
“I’d do it if Nagami got trapped,” Yahaba agrees solemnly, and Shinji nods along enthusiastically.   
The realization that he still hasn’t eaten hits Kuroo in the form of a very loud growling sounds from his stomach, which sends Yahaba and Watari into peals of laughter. “I can take you a little further north to eat once I’m done here,” Watari offers, but that means waiting for hours, and Kuroo hasn’t eaten in what’s steadily approaching 24 hours.   
“I guess it’s time to get officially stuck here, huh?” Yahaba says cheerfully, and Kuroo sighs.   
“I guess it is.”   
Lunch, as it turns out, is a very uneventful affair. The diner is small and Yahaba chats with the waiter, a small, friendly boy named Shibayama, endlessly about people Kuroo either doesn’t know or only vaguely remembers the name of. Small town gossip isn’t exactly eventful anyway. He’s more focused on the food, but he doesn’t feel any different as he nearly inhales the frankly enormous sandwich Yahaba had ordered for him.   
Neither of the two working in the diner seem to care much about the snake or Lady, and Kuroo’s surprised to say he’s gotten marginally more used to Nagami. He still eyes it uneasily as he eats, but he doesn’t feel the urge to bolt when it moves, so he calls it progress.   
By the time they leave the diner it’s nearing a normal dinner time and there are people wandering about the streets, mostly human looking, though Kuroo swears he sees furry legs and the occasion horn or odd facial feature. He gets a few curious looks but for the most part they seem to be content to mind their own business, which is comforting, leaving him to look out over the clear view to the ocean, where the sun is slowly dipping beneath the waves.   
Yahaba says goodbye cheerfully after a couple of blocks, turning down one of the small lanes branching off from the main road, and Kuroo walks the rest of the way to the motel in a quiet peace, glad to take some time to slow down and just watch the sunset. He should call Bokuto tonight or tomorrow, he muses, let him know that he’s staying in Elsewhere for a while.   
That train of thought is broken when he spies Kenma dart across the street just ahead of him, coming from what looks to be the mouth of a small trail leading up into the forest. He spots Kuroo as soon as he reaches the sidewalk, pausing long enough for Kuroo to catch up. He leans down to stroke Lady, murmuring a barely audibly greeting.   
Eventually they start walking together back to the hotel, Kuroo consciously trying to walk more slowly to match Kenma’s pace. “‘Sup,” Kuroo says, suddenly wanting to fill the silence. Kenma fixes him with a blank look.   
“Visiting a friend,” he responds after a long, judgemental pause. “You?”   
“Went to see the vet guy, Kyoutani, but then this guy with a snake called Yahaba came by and dragged me to meet the delivery guy,” he recounts, pausing for a moment. “Oh, and I ate the food here, so I guess I’m officially stuck.”   
Kenma stops in his tracks, narrowed gaze searching. Kuroo feels like all of the breath has been knocked out of his lungs.   
“Shit, I’m stuck here. Like, actually….” he pauses, trying to clear his head of thoughts clanging around in his head like bells. He lets out a shaky breath.   
Kenma does not look equipped to deal with Kuroo’s sudden panic, staring at him with wide eyes and shuffling nearer to him awkwardly. “You weren’t leaving without Lady anyway, right?” he asks, sounding hesitant.   
Kuroo shakes his head. “No it’s just… just…” he takes a deep breath. “That was a really dumb decision. Like, worse than that time I broke my collarbone.”   
Kenma snorts a bit at that and they continue walking, the calming view and Kenma’s presence helping to soothe the panicked thoughts racing through Kuroo’s head. It’s starting to grow dark, the road perfectly still and barely lit.   
The trees loom above him, but he finds that they scare him less than before despite being terrorized by a possessed high schooler yesterday. He figures that anything he sees from here on out will pale a bit in comparison to that.   
Kenma doesn’t offer any more conversation, which Kuroo finds he’s alright with. The guy is just quiet, he noticed, not bothering to fill silences that have always made Kuroo a little antsy. Now he feels he understands it, walking alongside the undisturbed highway in the dark, the red glowing sign of the motel growing larger as they make their way towards it. It illuminates the trees around it ominously, but the name and the cat design make it much harder to take seriously.   
“You really like cats, huh?” Kuroo muses out loud, and Kenma blinks up at him. “Oh, yeah,” he responds. “They’re nice.” He glances down fondly at Lady trotting along beside him.   
“They are,” Kuroo can feel a soft smile creeping onto his features. “I guess they don’t have cat cafés here, but I’ve been to one in Tokyo.”   
“Really?” Kenma looks up at him with sparkling eyes, and Kuroo nearly loses himself in them, wide and curious and almost shining with the last rays of sun peaking out above the waves.   
He catches himself before he can stare for too long. “Yeah! And an owl café. My best friends really loves owls.”   
Kenma’s lips curl into a small smile, and this time Kuroo knows he’s staring, but he can’t bring himself to care or look away.   
He usually has such a blank expression that when it changes, even a bit, Kenma looks so different and mesmerizing Kuroo has a hard time tearing his gaze away. He wants to draw more of those little laughs and smiles out of him, but with voice that urges him to say something witty to make his face light up like that again come butterflies and heat he can feel rising high on his cheekbones. He’s definitely omitting this part out of his Bokuto report.   
Soon they’re turning down the little driveway to the parking lot, illuminated by the lights outside the buildings and on either side of the driveway, and the moment is gone along with the darkness. A stab of disappointment lodges itself in Kuroo’s chest, but it’s quelled by the realization that he’s got time here, now that he doesn’t even have the option of leaving until he’s figured out this curse.   
Before his thoughts can stray off again Kenma stops dead in his tracks, face scrunched up in disgust. Kuroo pauses, blinking out at the serene night.   
“What is it?” he asks nervously, trying not to sounds terrified.   
“Something smells like bad magic,” Kenma replies, something like dread seeping into his tone as he cautiously sets out again towards the strip of hotel rooms, Kuroo on his heels. He sniffs at the air, but all he gets is a whiff of salty ocean and fresh pine, which he’s become used to in the past couple of days. Then again, he’s not anything near magic.   
Kenma eventually stops in front of the hotel room two doors down from Kuroo’s, glaring at the inconspicuous door like it’s done him some great offense. “You should go,” he tells Kuroo quietly.  
Kuroo’s been called a lot of things in his life, but stubborn is a common theme, followed by consistent, so he stays silently behind Kenma despite the venomous glare he shoots him over his shoulder. Nothing seems to be amiss anywhere to Kuroo, but if he’s learned anything in the past two days, it’s that here more than anywhere else nothing is as it seems, and so he stays alert and, admittedly, ready to run as fast as his legs can carry him away. Kenma sucks in a deep breath in front of him and softly opens the door. Kuroo wonders absently why it isn’t locked.   
It’s dark in the room, but Kuroo can make out the silhouette of a long, thin figure sitting on the bed, hunched over and still. It snaps up when the door swings open and Kenma flicks on the light, revealing a tall teenage boy with light hair and glasses. Logically he seems ordinary, but something about his appearance is just wrong to Kuroo somehow, movements too fluid, at once too sharp and oddly faded.   
Kenma’s frowning deeeply when Kuroo chances a glance at him, pinning down the boy on the bed, who looks like his brain is switching between fight or flight as he stares at them, frozen.   
“Oh,” Kenma mutters, sounding annoyed. “You’re the demon then.”


	7. chapter 7

His name is Kei.  
That’s all they really manage to get out of him before Tooru and Suga come in and pounce on the kid (demon? He doesn’t look anything like any idea Kuroo’s ever had of a demon in his life, but what does he know). Tooru and Suga look far too excited about the whole situation, which Kenma tells them blankly while they fuss over a clammed up, kind of constipated-looking Kei, asking him a million questions the demon doesn’t bother answering. Kuroo stands off to the side, feeling distinctly out of place.  
“Where is he?” is the next thing he says, and suddenly everyone is quiet.  
“Who?” Suga asks, eyes alight. Kei frowns even more deeply than before. Kuroo doesn’t think demons should look this much like angsty, pouting teenagers.  
“...The guy who summoned me,” he finally responds.  
Tooru and Suga exchange a charged glance, and Kenma looks sideways. Kuroo wonders if it’s anyone he’s met yet (he wouldn’t put anything past that Yahaba guy, or maybe it was the creepy quiet kid from the pet store).  
“Tadashi?” Suga says, voice a little too high, and the name sounds familiar, though Kuroo can’t put a face to it.  
There’s a long, strained silence. “I don’t want to scare him off,” Kei mutters, glaring down at his lap.  
Suga lets out a very long sigh and sits down heavily on the bed next to Kei. “It probably isn’t best if you go introduce yourself now,” Suga says with a tone of finality. “He has a shift at the gas station tomorrow afternoon, come then.”  
Kei looks a bit lost but doesn’t argue.  
“Kenmaaa,” Tooru sidles up to the shorter, slinging an arm around his shoulders. Kenma shoves him off.  
“I’m charging you triple,” he deadpans, ignoring Tooru’s pout. “It’s going to take ages to get the demon stink out.”  
Tooru starts to whine but Kenma’s already on his way out and Kuroo hesitantly follows, ignoring Tooru squinting at him suspiciously.  
“Was that an actual demon?” he asks once Kenma shuts the door to the room, earning him an eye roll.  
“Of course,” Kenma replies. “Tooru’s apprentice summoned it.”  
Kenma doesn’t offer any more information and Kuroo’s a little afraid to ask for it, so he heads back to his room with Lady, who’d refused to come inside the room with them, on his heels.  
The room’s been tidied a bit but everything’s more or less as he left it, and he sinks into the mattress, staring aimlessly up at the ceiling as Lady climbs up onto his stomach and makes herself comfortable. It’s far too early for Kuroo to sleep, especially considering how late he woke up, but he doesn’t have the excuse of food to go into town. He wants to explore the woods, but doing so alone at night sounds like a phenomenally bad idea, and he’s fairly sure Keiji or Kenma would skin him alive if he managed to make it out alive.  
Small towns, Kuroo decides, are only interesting for about 48 hours.  
In the end he gently moves Lady off of himself and leaves her in the room to sleep, slipping out into the cold night air. He’s been into town and the woods but not the rocky beach so he trudges up the driveway to the highway and walks for a bit towards a trail he’d seen just next to the pharmacy on the edge of the town. The trees on the other side of the highway loom up, dark and ominous, but Kuroo pointedly ignores them and looks out over the sea as he walks.  
The trail is small and steep, winding down the cliffs and to a small rocky beach strewn with long pieces of driftwood. The moon isn’t quite full enough to light the path or the beach but Kuroo manages to pick his way down without too many slips, but his ankle is starting to bother him again, so the going is slow. The beach, when he arrives, is still and serene, and he finds a large, dry piece of driftwood to sit on and stare out at the waves, mind wandering aimlessly. The lights from the town reflect on the water, distorted by the tall waves, but it’s free from the sounds of cars or people and Kuroo loses himself in his thoughts.  
All at once he feels a presence next to him, one moment nothing and the next something, making Kuroo jerk away from it in surprise. It turns it’s head towards him as he scrambles backward, mind working to try and rationalize the sudden, dark figure sitting next to him.  
It’s large eyes blink at him but it doesn’t move, and as Kuroo’s eyes adjust they find a lanky figure sitting on the driftwood, curly hair atop his head and wide eyes staring curiously down at him.  
“Uh,” he manages to say. “Ahh, hi.”  
The figure doesn’t say anything back, just stares at him for a beat longer and turns back to watching the ocean, movements graceful and small in a way that reminds Kuroo a bit of Kei, though this one’s presence feels much more natural. Oh my god, Kuroo thinks. Another demon. This is death.  
He stays perfectly still, and the figure simply continues to watch the waves silently, not looking back at Kuroo. He feels rooted to the spot. Every muscle in his body is screaming at him to run, but it feels like he’s been buried beneath the rocks of the beach, muscles stiff and heartbeat pounding in his ears.  
He’s not sure how long he stays like that, only that one moment the figure is there and the next he’s gone, and it takes Kuroo far too long than he’d like to admit for his heart rate to slow and his (now freezing) limbs to unstick from the ground. Once he can feel most of his extremities he stands, and it only takes the faintest prickle at the back of his neck like someone’s watching him to send him running back up the trail, slipping on the slick ground more than once and twisting his ankle yet again in the process.  
His heart is slamming against his chest and the cold air burns his lungs as he runs but his mind is blank with fear even as he crests the hill and runs until he’s nearly at the motel sign casting it’s red glow on the street and the trees and he slows down, the pain in his ankle and what must be bruises all over his body making themselves known along with the various scratches from the other night and he has to stop, breath coming out in heaves and fogging the air in front of him.  
He leans his hands on his knees to try to catch his breath, leaning most of his weight on his left leg and stretching out the painful right one. It protests but it doesn’t feel serious, just a twist that should be fine with a little less strain for a few days. He can’t get the image of that thing out of his mind. His eyes had been adjusted to the dark but he’d been unable to focus on it more than enough to barely make out the dark silhouette, and it had moved eerily little and been so silent, like a shadow.  
At least he knows it’s not a ghost. He hadn’t been able to see the one that had possessed Shouyou, so that can’t be it, though he’s not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing, considering he’s not at risk for ghost possession.  
He lets himself calm down there, lets the cold air snap him out of his panic. It’s so dark, aside from the soft red glow of the sign, that he doesn’t notice the figure walking towards him down the side of the highway until they’re underneath the motel light and his eye catches the movement, snapping up in panic.  
But it’s not the figure, though he’s fairly sure the danger of a demon trumps most other magical entities.  
Kei pauses when he sees Kuroo, but apparently the threat of Kuroo’s “random guy standing behind much scarier people” position doesn’t deter him, and he continues to walk towards him at a normal pace. He’s taller than Kuroo had realized, with easily a few centimeters on Kuroo, but he has the form of a lanky teenager with exceptionally bad posture and thick, black-framed glasses. Kuroo has to remind himself that a demon probably thinks of him like he thinks of a fly.  
“Going somewhere?” he asks the demon in what is admittedly a taunting manner when he gets closer, because demon or not he seems to know even less about the situation than Kuroo does and not being at the mercy of someone’s superior knowledge is a feeling Kuroo’s missed. He earns a venomous glare for that and absolute silence.  
“Off to find your little summoner against the big kid’s wishes?” he presses, and Kei stops before he passes Kuroo.  
“Stay out of it, human,” he spits out, the name sounding more like an insult than Kuroo is completely comfortable with.  
“Seems like you should stay on the good sides of those guys, shouldn’t you? Seeing as you’re trapped here and all.” He’s admittedly taking a shot in the dark with the trapped bit, but he figures the demon would be long gone if he didn’t have to be.  
“I said, stay out of it,” Kei growls, and suddenly his eyes are very, very dark and his form is flickering in and out, revealing a much larger, much darker shape, not even remotely humanoid, that makes Kuroo’s blood run cold.  
What is this, terrify Kuroo Tetsurou night?  
The dark, menacing, not a pouty teenager version of Kei is becoming more solidified and flickering less and Kuroo is thinking that he’ll never get to say goodbye to Bokuto (why didn’t he bring his phone? He never brings his phone. He needs to start bringing his phone.) when a shorter, familiar figure darts in front of him, in between himself and the demon, and stops.  
The demon stops except for the flickering, though even that’s slowing down, the teenager version glaring down at Kenma. Even with the hulking, terrifying form Kenma doesn’t waiver, and though Kuroo can’t see his expression from this angle, he can imagine it perfectly well.  
“Stop acting like a baby,” Kenma growls, sounding equal parts murderous and exhausted. “I will get Tooru over here with holy water. And spells.”  
It sounds to Kuroo like Kenma has very little idea what Tooru would need to make a dent in Kei and possibly Tooru as well, but something must affect Kei because the flickering dies down until it’s just the human form, sulking in an impressively convincing teenager-like manner.  
“If you want to help Tadashi, wait and talk to him on his own terms,” Kenma bites out before grabbing onto Kuroo and Kei’s wrists and dragging them towards the driveway to the motel. Kei shoots him a sour look over Kenma’s head. “Don’t think you’re off the hook either,” Kenma hisses to Kuroo.  
Five minutes later Kuroo is sitting next to Kei on the bed, a very, very tired-looking Kenma sitting on the desk chair facing them.  
“Kuroo,” he says icily, “What was one of the very first things Keiji told you when you got here?”  
“I mean,” Kuroo shrugs. “It wasn’t actually the woods.”  
Kenma gives him a look that could freeze over hell. “Do I need to give you a curfew?” he asks.  
Kuroo shakes his head vigorously, and decides not to mention the terrifying beach figure when Kenma turns his gaze to Kei. No need to bring the guy’s attention back to him.  
“As for you. I will get Tooru to come over here and draw up a binding circle if it’s necessary.”  
Kei sulks but doesn’t reply, which seems to satisfy Kenma. Kuroo’s not sure he’s ever heard him talk so much at one time, and he doesn’t seem particularly comfortable with it, though his words have the desired effect. Kuroo feels distinctly like a chastised child.  
“I’m going to bed,” Kenma tells them. “If I hear anything from either of you two, binding circles and rope will be involved.”  
With that he stands and exits the room. There’s silence in the room.  
“Are you terrified of him or the Tooru guy?” Kuroo asks conversationally.  
“Get out or I will destroy you, human,” Kei spits out, and with the memory of an actual fucking demon looming over him Kuroo rushes out of the room compliantly.  
Terrify Kuroo Tetsurou night, he decides, is over.  
Kenma is waiting for him outside, shooting Kuroo an icy look when he emerges. “You dug your own grave, staying here and getting yourself trapped. Lie in it,” he bites out, turning around and storming off in the direction of his house before Kuroo can think of something to say.  
“Wait!” Kuroo calls out before he can stop himself, brain working to figure out what exactly he plans to say as Kenma pauses and turns, frowning. “Uh. You don’t want me here, right?” Kuroo asks.  
Kenma’s frown deepens. “I… don’t want another person trapped here,” he admits quietly. “It’s wrong.”  
Kuroo blinks, gears turning in his head. “Then help me get out!”  
“That’s impossible,” Kenma tells him immediately with a sigh. “Sakusa’s magic is stronger than Komori’s, but Komori’s more clever. The curse is unbreakable, and if there were loopholes, someone would have found them by now.”  
Kuroo cocks his head to the side. “Who?”  
Kenma and Keiji’s living room is becoming more and more familiar to Kuroo, settled down on the old, soft couch with Kenma curled into the armchair across from him, both clutching cups of tea. Kenma frowns at him.  
“So…” Kuroo starts. “Where’s Keiji?”  
Kenma smirks a little at that, which Kuroo counts as a win. “Chikara’s,” he replies. “His boyfriend.”  
There’s another silence. “So…”  
“Sakusa is the guardian of this land,” Kenma interrupts. “The responsibility and power are passed down from generation to generation of his family. Komori, and the Komoris before him, are bound to serve the guardian of the land,” Kenma pauses, face scrunching up in thought. “Sakusa didn’t want people on this land, so he attempted to close it off, throw everyone out. But Komori… wasn’t having it, so he panicked, and threw up this curse.” By this time Kenma looks somewhat murderous. Kuroo doesn’t want to be anywhere near them when Kenma and this Komori guy talk. “And now he won’t take it down, or even amend it, because only those who are meant to come here can enter, and to him that means whoever’s meant to come here is meant to stay here forever,” Kenma growls out.  
“...right,” Kuroo says weakly. “So, I’m meant to be here!”  
Kenma glares at him. “Yes.”  
“I wonder why…” Kuroo muses. “Maybe I’m meant to help you guys take down the curse!”  
The glare turns skeptical. “Sure.”  
“Aw, let me dream,” Kuroo sulks, sinking into the couch and taking a long sip of his tea. “We tried to go talk to Sakusa, but we couldn’t get through.”  
“Yes, I know,” Kenma snaps. “You’ll have more luck talking to Komori, but he won’t be sympathetic. And if Sakusa could take down the curse, he would have already.”  
“I’m not the first one to try this, then,” Kuroo prompts.  
“No,” Kenma admits, meeting his eyes steadily. “You’re not.”  
“Who? I could talk to them, compare strategies-”  
“You’re not getting out,” Kenma cuts him off curtly, and it clicks.  
“Oh,” he knows he’s staring at Kenma, but he can’t bring himself to care. He’s not sure what to say to that, and Kenma’s bright eyes are boring into him, but Kenma doesn’t seem to want an answer.  
“I can take you to see Sakusa, maybe,” Kenma concedes finally, breaking eye contact and shifting in his chair. Kuroo brightens.  
“Really?”  
“If he agrees to it, yes,” Kenma replies. “You’ll probably see Komori around town, don’t tell him that.”  
Kuroo nods, though he’s not entirely sure why, and Kenma seems satisfied. They finish their tea in relative silence, Kuroo unsure what to say and Kenma seemingly content, and Kuroo excuses himself when he finishes, using the walk down to his room to clear his head and think over what Kenma had told him. He seems sure that there’s nothing Sakusa can do, but there has to be something they’ve overlooked.  
He’s too fatigued to even think about calling Bokuto when he gets back to the room, barely changing into pyjamas before crawling into bed. He feels bad for constantly putting off calling but he’s still not sure what he’s going to tell him. Bokuto may be loud and silly but he’s always been one to believe what he sees and question everything, and Kuroo’s not sure how he would take it if Kuroo told him what is actually going on. That leaves him to think up a lie, but Kuroo’s always been a horrible liar, and he’s not sure what he’d say anyway.  
Everything sucks, he decides. He supposes the kid who summoned that grumpy demon kid might be having a worse time than him right now, but the weight of uncertainty is pressing down on Kuroo more than before and even the thought of the possible meeting with this land guardian dude isn’t doing much for him.  
So he does what he often does when he’s feeling down, picks up the phone, and calls Daichi. He picks up after a few rings.  
“Kuroo? It’s late, what do you want?” Daichi’s mutters grumpily into the phone. It is, in fact, barely past ten, but the guy’s a bit of an old man at heart.  
“Just thought I’d say hi!” Kuroo forces himself to sound cheerful, though he knows Daichi will see right through it.  
“What’s up?” Daichi asks, voice softer. “Where are you?”  
“I got stuck in some little town on the Oregon coast,” Kuroo admits after a pause, and Daichi sighs.  
“Stuck how?”  
“Car problems,” he makes up on the spot. “I’m waiting for the auto shop to get a part I need, but it’s in the middle of nowhere and I’m not sure when that’ll be.”  
“I can always come up, you know,” Daichi says, completely sincere.  
“No, of course not! It’ll probably just be a short detour, I’ll be back on the road in no time. How’s your grandmother?”  
Daichi lets Kuroo change the subject, if a bit reluctantly, to Kuroo’s relief. His grandmother is fine, his younger sister decided which college she’s going to, and the new busboy at the restaurant he works at is apparently a bit of a pain. The utter normalcy of all these things and Daichi’s low, even voice lull Kuroo into a doze, adding his “mm-hmm”s when it seems necessary and stroking Lady absently.  
“You’re falling asleep, aren’t you, you big cat,” Daichi eventually groans, though Kuroo doesn’t miss the note of fondness in his tone.  
“A little,” he admits. “You need your sleep anyway, old man.”  
“Call me soon, especially if you have to stay in that town much longer.”  
“I will,” he assures Daichi.  
“I’m serious.”  
“I will!”  
“You’d better be-”  
“Night, dad!” he cuts Daichi off before he can get caught in one of his tirades, hanging up and powering his phone off before settling back into his bed properly, face inches from Lady’s. Only a sliver of moonlight shines in from the open curtains, the sound of the waves gentle through the crack in the window. He’s dozing, nearly asleep when the crunch of tires on gravel and someone’s bright headlights assault his senses, forcing him awake. He’s going to have problems back home in Tokyo if such a small disturbance wakes him up so easily.  
He groans and rolls over, squinting at the car parked neatly next to his own. It takes a moment to register that, as far as he knows, neither Kenma or Keiji own a car, and by that time a figure that is most definitely neither of them is stepping out of the drivers side. It’s hard to see him clearly with the headlights pointed the wrong way but Kuroo’s fairly sure he’s never met the guy before in his life.  
The figure, short and broad, walks up to the dark, empty office (Kuroo’s totally not spying on this guy, of course not), and through the crack in the window he can hear the indoor-voice level, very passionate “fuck” the guy lets out as he rests his forehead against the glass window on the door.  
“Need any help there?” Kuroo calls out, shoving the window open as far as it’ll go and sticking his head out of it. The guy, who is most definitely unfamiliar, jumps and whips around to face Kuroo, squinting at him with a deep frown.  
“The motel’s closed, right?” the guy asks in a very defeated tone.  
“Yeah, but I saw one of the owners a few minutes ago,” Kuroo offers. “You from around here?”  
“No, just passing through. The roads aren’t that safe at night and I don’t know them, I just want somewhere to stay for the night.”  
The story is frighteningly familiar to Kuroo’s own. He internally sighs, resigning himself to being hated by Kenma and Keiji for the rest of his life. “Give me a sec.”  
He emerges from the door a minute later, more dressed than before and holding his cat as a form of peace offering so Kenma doesn’t hate him. “They live just up there,” he points to the house up the small hill, “I’m sure they’ll give you a room.”  
The guy, who under better lighting is short and muscular, with spiky hair and green eyes, nods. “Thanks.”  
“Kuroo Tetsurou, nice to meet you,” he introduces himself, shifting Lady to one arm to stick out his hand. The other takes it, and Kuroo takes the opportunity to admire the guy’s impressive arm muscles. He wonders if it would be weird to ask about the guy’s workout routine right off the bat.  
“Hajime Iwaizumi,” the other says.  
They start walking, making small talk as they trudge up the small hill to the house. Kuroo finds himself a bit jumpy, especially after that night’s events, but Hajime seems pretty composed, snorting a bit when Kuroo sucks in a breath at the call of a bird in the tree next to them. They’re not all that far from the shore at all, and Kuroo’s fairly sure another run in with a large dark shape is actually going to kill him.  
Hajime, as it turns out, is another post-graduation roadtripper from Canada. He plans to work in physical therapy, played ice hockey through college, and is returning to Canada to start working after months of exploring North and South America. He’s just passing through, caught off-guard by the slowly shortening days miles from his final destination.  
“Oh, they’re so going to hate me for this,” Kuroo mutters when they arrive at Kenma and Keiji’s front door.  
“Do you know them?” Hajime asks as Kuroo stares mournfully at the door.  
“Kind of,” he replies, and before he can stop himself and just tell Hajime to spend the night with him, he raises his hand and knocks on the door.  
It takes an awkward minute for a murderous, rumpled Kenma to answer the door. “You’re lucky Keiji’s at Chikara’s,” he bites out with barely a glance at Hajime, “because if it were him you would be skinned alive.”  
Kuroo’s not sure if it’s because Kenma’s nicer than Keiji or if it’s the cat in his arms (he suspects the latter), but whatever it is motivates Kenma just enough to trudge down to the office (in his bathroom and fuzzy slippers, but Hajime doesn’t seem to be judging and it’s certainly not Kuroo’s place to) and shoves the keys to the room next to Kuroo’s into the guy’s hands before trudging back up the hill, only pausing to stroke Lady for a moment. Hajime looks thoroughly confused.

“Why do I feel like I’ve had a brush with death,” he mutters, and Kuroo almost laughs, but he’s acutely aware of how terrifying Kenma can be. He elects to pat Hajime on the shoulder and leave it at that. “Hey, are there any food places that would be open this late?”  
Kuroo can feel the blood drain out of his face at the question, and he barely saves himself from stuttering as he tries to think up and answer. He should probably tell him there’s nothing and go to bed. But then he might decide to go see for himself, and then that creepy siren guy will get him, Kuroo just knows it. “Maybe the convenience store’s still open?” he offers weakly. It’s just on the edge of town, so with some luck Hajime won’t go any further into down looking for something more nutritious.  
Hajime makes a face at that but nods. “I think I saw it on the way in, nothing else seemed to be open. Pretty quiet town, isn’t it?”  
Kuroo inwardly sighs in relief. “Yeah, not much going on.”  
Kuroo manages to slip in the advice to have breakfast in the next town before Hajime goes off to the store, leaving Kuroo to sink back into his bed and slightly manhandle his cat into cuddling him. Kuroo’s not sure he can deal with anything else tonight and shuts off his phone and closes the window and the curtains. If his cat pees on the carpet he’ll offer to clean it up, and probably regret everything while doing it, but he needs about 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep after the evening he’s had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so... that's it. I might pick this thing back up in the future, but for now this is all I have.

**Author's Note:**

> Roast me!


End file.
